The Reverend Peyton’s
all photos taken in Brown County by Scott Toepfer
Big Damn Band
At Home in Brown County
~by Bill Weaver
“T
here aren’t many places a guy like me fits in,” laughs the Reverend Josh Peyton about why he lives in Brown County. “I can make home base anywhere—my work is on the road traveling and making records. What I love about Brown County is that it’s all the good things about southern Indiana rolled up into one place.” Known for powerful live performances, The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band features Peyton on guitar and vocals, wife Breezy on washboard and backing vocals, and Aaron ‘Cuz’ Persinger on drums, recasting American country blues in a way that attracts young listeners while pleasing aficionados of early blues masters like Charlie Patton, Furry Lewis, and Bukka White.
16 Our Brown County • March/April 2013
“I just try to be myself and play good, honest, real music,” Peyton says. “Our audiences tend to be— compared to other blues or roots bands—a lot younger, but they’re really diverse—like a punk-rock kid with blue hair sitting next to an old 78 rpm record collector—and everything in between, from people wearing Johnny Cash and Ramones t-shirts to housewives. One day