MUSIC

MUSIC MUSIC

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band’s latest album nds the joy in difficult times.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF REVEREND PEYTON’S BIG DAMN BAND Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band’s latest album nds the joy in difficult times.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF REVEREND PEYTON’S BIG DAMN BAND

A Damn Good Time A Damn Good Time e Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band delivers uplifting roots music with latest album, Dance Songs For e Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band delivers uplifting roots music with latest album, Dance Songs For Hard Times and a New Year’s Eve show in Newport. Hard Times and a New Year’s Eve show in Newport.BY ALAN SCULLEY

BY ALAN SCULLEY

The pandemic proved to be a dif cult time for Reverend Peyton.

First and foremost, there was quite a scare when his wife (and washboard player in e Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band) Breezy Peyton fell ill soon after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Peyton says he doesn’t know for sure if Breezy had COVID-19 or pneumonia. But she had it bad.

“She had a 10° temperature for over a month. It was unbelievable. And her lungs will be permanently scarred,” Peyton says in a phone interview. “We had a doctor at the hospital who told me when he sent us home, ‘I’ve never sent anybody home as sick as your wife is.’ He’s like, ‘I just don’t think you want to be here. We think we’re going to be inundated with elderly people. We don’t know what we’re going to do. So you just go home, and if she gets any worse, you’ll need to bring her back or call 911.’”

Peyton was aghast, he says.

“I was just like ‘Uh, what?’ So we went home and I thought ‘Well, she’ll be better in a few days.’ en a few days turned into a few weeks,” Peyton says. “It was just like ‘Oh my God, what are we doing? What’s going to happen here?’ at was the scariest thing for me.”

Breezy did eventually recover. Peyton didn’t get so sick, but he had a health issue for a time that left him ba ed.

“I had this weird – the best way I can describe it is like this fog on my brain for six months,” he says. “It just made me, well it’s kind of like when you rst wake up in the morning and your brain is not all the way awake. at’s what it felt like.”

Another unsettling issue was whether Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, which also includes drummer Max Senteney, would survive the pandemic.

“I told Breezy at the beginning, I said, man, if everybody goes and gets a different job, they’re going to start getting back to landscaping or whatever they’re going to do, then we’re not going to have a band,” he says. “We’re going to lose our crew and our band, and when it comes time to actually doing something again, everyone’s going to have

The pandemic proved to be a dif cult time for Reverend Peyton. First and foremost, there was roots taking hold in another business or job situation.”quite a scare when his wife (and wash- Peyton, though, gured out ways to board player in e Reverend Peyton’s generate enough income to pay the Big Damn Band) Breezy Peyton fell ill group’s crew and keep the organization soon after the start of the COVID-19 intact until touring could resume. He pandemic. set up a Patreon account in which fans

Peyton says he doesn’t know for sure donated money for a variety of spe-if Breezy had COVID-19 or pneumonia. cial band items, and the group played But she had it bad. monthly livestream shows that also

“She had a 10° temperature for over generated funds.a month. It was unbelievable. And her If serious health issues and career lungs will be permanently scarred,” uncertainty made life hard during the Peyton says in a phone interview. “We pandemic, one thing that came easily had a doctor at the hospital who told was new music in the form of the studio me when he sent us home, ‘I’ve never album, Dance Songs For Hard Times, sent anybody home as sick as your wife released April 2021. is.’ He’s like, ‘I just don’t think you want Peyton says he had returned home from touring before the pandemic hit,

to be here. We think we’re going to be inundated with elderly people. We don’t know what we’re going to do. So you just go home, and if she gets any worse, you’ll need to bring her back or call 911.’”

Peyton was aghast, he says.

“I was just like ‘Uh, what?’ So we went home and I thought ‘Well, she’ll be better in a few days.’ en a few days turned into a few weeks,” Peyton says. “It was just like ‘Oh my God, what are we doing? What’s going to happen here?’ at was the scariest thing for me.”

Breezy did eventually recover. Peyton didn’t get so sick, but he had a health issue for a time that left him ba ed.

“I had this weird – the best way I can describe it is like this fog on my brain for six months,” he says. “It just made me, well it’s kind of like when you rst wake up in the morning and your brain is not all the way awake. at’s what it felt like.”

Another unsettling issue was whether Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, which also includes drummer Max Senteney, would survive the pandemic.

“I told Breezy at the beginning, I said, man, if everybody goes and gets a different job, they’re going to start getting back to landscaping or whatever they’re going to do, then we’re not going to have a band,” he says. “We’re going to lose our crew and our band, and when it comes time to actually doing something again, everyone’s going to have roots taking hold in another business or job situation.”

Peyton, though, gured out ways to generate enough income to pay the group’s crew and keep the organization intact until touring could resume. He set up a Patreon account in which fans donated money for a variety of special band items, and the group played monthly livestream shows that also generated funds.

If serious health issues and career uncertainty made life hard during the pandemic, one thing that came easily was new music in the form of the studio album, Dance Songs For Hard Times, released April 2021.

Peyton says he had returned home from touring before the pandemic hit,

and as usually happens when he’s on tour, he had amassed a collection of song ideas that were in various stages of completion. He planned to nish those ideas and make a new album in what he thought would be a normal year of 2020.

But the pandemic prompted him to set aside the vast majority of song ideas Peyton had cataloged on tour. During March and April of that year, he split much of his time between caring for Breezy and writing the songs that would go on Dance Songs For Hard Times.

“When everything got shut down, everything changed. It just felt like none of this stu [I had been working on] made sense. So I would say it’s at least 80% [of the album] was just written in a two- or three-week period,” Peyton says. “It just felt like I had all this emotion inside of me and the world had changed, and I just felt like I needed to express that.

Later in the year, the Peytons and Senteney got together with producer Vance Powell and recorded Dance Songs in a lightning-quick ve days.

Peyton says Dance Songs For Hard Times, the group’s 10th full-length album, was the easiest recording project of the Big Damn Band’s career. It was recorded live in the studio to eight-track analog tape, although Peyton says he and Powell took advantage of recording technology if a certain song needed an additional part or an overdub, and they also put a good deal of thought into the tones and song arrangements before hitting record. e result – perhaps surprisingly, given the di cult times in which the songs were created – is a lively and decidedly upbeat album. Yes, there are some serious lyrics, like those in “Ways and Means” (about nancial struggles) and “No Tellin’ When” (about the uncertainty and isolation of the pandemic), but much of the album provides an emotional lift. With their sound still rmly rooted in the classic earthy blues style that’s characterized all of the bands’ albums and centered around Peyton’s highly accomplished playing, which moves easily between nger-picked and slide guitar parts, the Big Damn Band comes out rocking on the boogying “Ways And Means” and the frenetically fun “Rattle Can.” e energy only occasionally wanes from there, as “Too Cool To Dance,” “Til I Die” and “Sad Songs” o er more gritty high points on the Dance Songs For Hard Times album.

“It’s the best record we’ve ever done,” Peyton says. “It’s not just me saying it. Literally every review that mentioned it said that.

“I think the hardest thing to do in music is to craft a good song. at’s the thing on this record I think I’m most proud of is the actual songs,” Peyton says.

Peyton and his bandmates plan to showcase a number of the new songs on the current tour, which will make a stop at Newport’s Southgate House Revival, but the show may come with a few surprises, too.

“It de nitely is going to be pulling from the new record for certain, but at the same time, there’s enough time in the set that we can sprinkle stu in from a lot of other records, too,” Peyton says. “I like to put stu in the set that you can only see if you come to the show, things that aren’t on any record. I think that’s sort of a bonus for the people that are coming out and paying that full ticket price to see the show.”

e Reverend Peyton’s

Big Damn Band performs on Dec. 31 at the Southgate House Revival, 111 E. 6th St., Newport. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show starts at 9 p.m. Joe’s Truck Stop and the Hammer and the Hatchet open the show. Info: southgatehouse.com.

SOUND ADVICE SOUND ADVICE

Fairmount Girls

PHOTO:DAVID GARZA Fairmount Girls

PHOTO:DAVID GARZA

FAIRMOUNT GIRLS FAIRMOUNT GIRLS Dec. 16 • Northside Tavern

If you’re searching for the ultimate punk-rock experience, look no further than the Fairmount Girls. is Cincinnati-based, all-girl band shines with quirky, melodic, noise guitar hooks, trade-o vocal harmonies and signature Far sa organ drones. Accompanied by eye-catching props, dress themes and even cupcakes, it all guarantees an epic show.

Since 1996, Fairmount Girls (Diana Vakharia on bass, Melissa Fairmount on organ, Jane Lane on guitar, Dana Hamblen on drums, joined occasionally by Chris Schadler on guitar) have been at the center of Cincinnati’s indie music scene, playing countless shows throughout the Queen City and beyond. Drawing inspiration from artists like the Breeders, Stereolab, Scrawl and Wolverton Brothers, Fairmount Girls have spent over a decade crafting and honing a truly unique sound and persona all their own.

Fairmount Girls recorded an album called Carnival on the Inside with John Ho man at e Lodge KY in Dayton, Kentucky just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and will soon be releasing it on vinyl. e band is working on

Dec. 16 • Northside Tavern If you’re searching for the ultimate punk-rock experience, look no further than the Fairmount Girls. is Cincinnati-based, all-girl band shines with quirky, melodic, noise guitar hooks, trade-o vocal harmonies and signature Far sa organ drones. Accompanied by eye-catching props, dress themes and even cupcakes, it all guarantees an epic show. Since 1996, Fairmount Girls (Diana Vakharia on bass, Melissa Fairmount on organ, Jane Lane on guitar, Dana Hamblen on drums, joined occasionally by Chris Schadler on guitar) have been at the center of Cincinnati’s indie music scene, playing countless shows throughout the Queen City and beyond. a new album with Todd Utley, expected to be released sometime in 2023. Shows in Cincinnati are planned throughout the winter months as well as appearances out of state. “We’d love to do some out of town shows next year.” Hamblen tells CityBeat. “We’re big in Hamtramck, Detroit! Ha Ha!” From headlining their own shows to opening for the likes of Jack White and Guided by Voices, Fairmount Girls – through dedication, and years spent creating a stunning catalog of punk masterpieces – have deservedly earned the title of Local Rock Royalty. Fairmount Girls play Northside Tavern on Dec. 16 at 9 p.m. Doors open at 8 p.m. Plush Machine also is on the bill. Info: northsidetav.com. (Eric Bates) Drawing inspiration from artists like the Breeders, Stereolab, Scrawl and Wolverton Brothers, Fairmount Girls have spent over a decade crafting and honing a truly unique sound and persona all their own.

Fairmount Girls recorded an album called Carnival on the Inside with John Ho man at e Lodge KY in Dayton, Kentucky just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and will soon be releasing it on vinyl. e band is working on a new album with Todd Utley, expected to be released sometime in 2023. Shows in Cincinnati are planned throughout the winter months as well as appearances out of state. “We’d love to do some out of town shows next year.” Hamblen tells CityBeat. “We’re big in Hamtramck, Detroit! Ha Ha!” From headlining their own shows to opening for the likes of Jack White and Guided by Voices, Fairmount Girls – through dedication, and years spent creating a stunning catalog of punk masterpieces – have deservedly earned the title of Local Rock Royalty. Fairmount Girls play Northside Tavern on Dec. 16 at 9 p.m. Doors open at 8 p.m. Plush Machine also is on the bill. Info: northsidetav.com. (Eric Bates)

PAM TILLIS PAM TILLIS Dec. 17 • Ludlow Garage

If at rst you don’t succeed, try again. at’s what “Maybe It Was Memphis” singer Pam Tillis did back in the late 1980s, and country fans everywhere thank her for it.

Tillis’s music career launched with a disco song, “Every Home Should Have One.” It’s a catchy bop that could very well get your hips swinging. But Tillis wasn’t nding commercial success with her pop career. After a few tries in the pop industry, the singer-songwriter returned to her roots. With legendary outlaw country artist Mel Tillis as her father, country music may have been Pam Tillis’s destiny.

But Tillis claims it wasn’t her father’s career that inspired her to give country music her all. In a 2014 interview with Anchorage Daily News she names three

Dec. 17 • Ludlow Garage

If at rst you don’t succeed, try again. at’s what “Maybe It Was Memphis” singer Pam Tillis did back in the late 1980s, and country fans everywhere thank her for it. Tillis’s music career launched with a disco song, “Every Home Should Have One.” It’s a catchy bop that could very well get your hips swinging. But Tillis wasn’t nding commercial success with female country icons: Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn. ese country queens wrote their own music and played their own instruments; that sounded like the kind of country career Tillis could get behind. In 1991, she released her debut country record, Put Yourself in My Place on Arista Records. e album featured ve singles, including the hit “Don’t Tell Me

her pop career. After a few tries in the pop industry, the singer-songwriter returned to her roots. With legendary outlaw country artist Mel Tillis as her father, country music may have been Pam Tillis’s destiny.

But Tillis claims it wasn’t her father’s career that inspired her to give country music her all. In a 2014 interview with Anchorage Daily News she names three female country icons: Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn. ese country queens wrote their own music and played their own instruments; that sounded like the kind of country career Tillis could get behind.

In 1991, she released her debut country record, Put Yourself in My Place on Arista Records. e album featured ve singles, including the hit “Don’t Tell Me

Pam Tillis

PHOTO: MATT SPICHER, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Pam Tillis

PHOTO: MATT SPICHER, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Goose

PHOTO: COURTESY OF GOOSE

What To Do.” In the following years, Tillis had three platinum albums, six number one songs, two Grammy awards and even received the 1994 CMA’s Female Vocalist Of e Year Award and became a member of e Grand Ole Opry, to boot.

Tillis continues to write, record, and tour in various out ts. is month, she’s bringing her holiday special, “Belles and Bows,” to the Queen City. e show will feature “country hits and Christmas favorites.”

Pam Tillis plays Ludlow Garage on Dec. 17. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8:30 p.m. Info: ludlowgaragecincinnati.com. (Katrina Eresman)

GOOSE

Dec. 30 and 31• e Andrew J Brady Music Center

Fresh o an eight-date tour with jam band pioneer and Phish’s lead guitarist Trey Anastasio, Connecticut natives Goose will be playing a special New Year’s Eve show at the Andrew J Brady Center. A self-described “indie groove” band, Goose gently eschews the jam band label while acknowledging a penchant for improvisation – particularly at their live shows – and the in uence of bands such as Umphrey’s McGee and Phish. eir latest shows with Anastasio have certainly cemented them as one of the fastest-rising acts in the scene, and they’ve put in the work. After forming in 2014, playing a whirlwind of shows at local bars and touring through college towns, Goose has emerged over the last several years as one of the most popular acts in the jam band circuit. With a sound that contains references to predecessors like Phish and the Grateful Dead, but whose trance and indie in uences also appeal to a younger scene (like their 21-minute cover of the Vampire Weekend song “2021” per request of Ezra Koenig, who is a fan), Goose is a band that appeals to multiple generations.

Goose’s latest EP, Undecided, was released in November. Recorded during the same sessions in Woodstock, New York, that also resulted in the full-length e ort Drip eld in June, the four-track EP consists of songs written in years prior — some while still teenagers, guitarist Rick Mitarotonda told jambase. com — that have been reworked and perfected during the band’s live sets.

Goose plays the Andrew J Brady Music Center at 8 p.m. Dec. 30 and 9 p.m. 31. As of press time, the Dec. 31 show is sold out. Info: bradymusiccenter.com. (Derek Kalback)