Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band – FRONT PORCH SESSIONS

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
FRONT PORCH SESSIONS
Thirty Tigers/Family Owned

The Soundtrack For The Morning After A Raucous Party The Night Before.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect here; and when I played it the first evening I received it I think I was a little bit disappointed.
In fairness to the Reverend and Breezy, that’s not fair at all…..as I was probably expecting something as uplifting as their last album So Delicious; which came out of the traps like a greyhound on steroids.
Here, We Deserve a Happy Ending which opens Front Porch Sessions is a slow Country Blues straight out of the Delta; making me do a double take; as did the whole album that first night.
Here I am two weeks later and this album has now gone into my potential Top 10 for 2017!
Why so? If So Delicious was the soundtrack to the greatest Saturday night ever; Front Porch Sessions is the morning after; when everything is working in slow motion; apart from your heart.
Now I hear We Deserve a Happy Ending for what it is, I absolutely love it, the Reverend’s guitar playing is as cool and raw as ever and the melody the trio create is toe-tappingly good; plus the sentiment is just perfect for how I am feeling at the moment.
Boy oh boy can these guys write a song, What You Did to The Boy Ain’t Right is immediately followed by One Bad Shoe and take us back to the days when our man was learning his trade listening to the Blues Masters like Bukka White and Charlie Patton; but here he takes their lead and successfully puts his very own modern stamp on a very traditional style of music.
There are a couple of the bands’ older songs re-jigged to fit into this scrumptious ‘morning after’ mood; with Cornbread and Butterbeans probably the ‘fastest’ song here; but stripped back to basics compared to it’s original version and dare I say it; sounding even better!
Fitting in perfectly with the songs here are two instrumentals; It’s All Night Long and the amusingly titled Flying Squirrels both show what amazing and dexterous musicians The Reverend, Breezy and Maxwell Senteney are.
Sitting here tonight, basking in the half-light, I’ve just changed my mind as to my favourite track here…it was going to be the red raw Gospel version of Let Your Light Shine but the rascally Shakey Shirley had me smiling and tapping out the beat as I was typing; and it has to be said I very nearly began shaking my hips to it as I brewed some coffee!
After the success of So Delicious it would have been all too easy for the band to try and recreate that magic for a follow up; but instead they have gone back to their roots and what Roots they are to give us something we didn’t know we wanted, but actually needed….real, old-school 21st Century Country Blues.

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Released March 10th 2017