At age 12, Rev Peyton's father gave him a red Kay "State of the Art" model guitar,[10] eventually purchasing a Gorilla amplifier once he learned to play.
Further exploration led to pre-World War II "country blues", and a desire to learn the finger-picking style of artists like Charlie Patton.
A trip to Clarksdale, Mississippi, inspired them to resume playing music, and their first gigs were at the Melody Inn in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Big Damn Band has toured constantly in the United States, Canada and Europe,[15] steadily building popularity and sales of their albums.
September 18, 2014, the band announced that they signed with Shanachie Entertainment's recently revived Yazoo Records label, which previously had specialized in reissues.
[22] The Big Damn Band plays more than 250 dates per year,[2] predominantly in the United States, Canada and Europe.
[28] They have also played blues festivals and venues in Italy, Switzerland and Austria, and spent the fall of 2011 touring Europe.
On March 6, 2013, they launched the Big Damn Blues Revolution Tour with Jimbo Mathus & Grammy Winner Alvin Youngblood Hart in Columbia, Missouri.
[30] During 2020 and 2021, due to tour date cancellations as a side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, the band started doing monthly live streams from their home, typically playing an hour of music and encouraging donations or patreon subscriptions during the set.
Their song "Your Cousin's On Cops" led to a gig as the house band on a Jerry Springer Pay-Per-View special.
[32] On January 10, 2013, The Indianapolis Star newspaper reported that the band had licensed four songs to the US cable television network Showtime series Shameless.
[34] A video featuring Rev Peyton playing a three-string guitar fashioned out of a 12 gauge shotgun by fellow Indiana native Bryan Fleming[35] went viral, garnering tens of millions of views and mentions on cable TV programs.
[36] Peyton plays the instrument, releases the safety, aims at a target of a jug full of water, fires, then finishes the song with a laugh.
[40] In 2020, the Big Damn Band launched their Patreon,[41] with an exclusive podcast exploring the "nuts and bolts" of many of their most popular songs.
Produced by Paul Mahern and Jimbo Mathus of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Recorded direct to analog tape with no overdubs, this album most accurately captures the sound of the band in concert.[when?]
All original material except for the cover of Bukka White's "Aberdeen Mississippi Blues", it includes re-recorded versions of several songs from the first album.
Produced by Paul Mahern at White Ark Studios, The Gospel Album has similar production and style to that of Big Damn Nation.
The album features Big Damn Band versions of seven gospel classics and one original song, "Blow That Horn", written by The Rev.
In terms of instrumentation changes, Jayme Peyton brings the five gallon bucket to the fore-front, which can be heard prominently on the song "Tell All the World John".
[48] The album's first song, Jesus Is a Dying-bed Maker was recorded inside the cotton gin at the Dockery Plantation, Patton's childhood home.
The packaging for the physical releases includes postcards for each of the tracks by photographer Scott Toepfer, with the lyrics for each song printed on the back of the card.
[46] British newspaper The Independent gave the album four stars out of five, describing it as "a peculiarly infectious blues crusade, touching on themes of money, morality and social responsibility.
"[54] Barry Kerzner of American Blues Scene described the album as an "amazingly well crafted, controlled explosion of talent" and that one should "Imagine the playing of Vince Gill, Whitey Johnson, James Blood Ulmer, and Ricky Skaggs all rolled into one person.
It was produced by Terry Border of Bent Objects and features animated still images of the band's signature instruments as well as the eponymous truck.
[60] January 26, 2015, they released "Raise A Little Hell" as the first music video for the album, featuring a parade of eccentric characters through a small town.