About This Event

Proceeds benefit #Mi22ion united in the war against veteran suicide!


Sunny Ledfurd



North Carolina singer and songwriter fuses country, rock, and hip-hop while spinning tales of high living and hard partying.










The Pietasters
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The seed was planted in 1990. A bunch of friends started a band with no pretensions: the idea was to make music for house parties, not to make a career out of music. These guys and a girl grew up in and around Washington, D.C. The scene was small and all the Punks, Skins, and Mods intermixed in those days. You were as likely to see a Mod at a Scream show as you were to see a Punk at a Toasters show. This varied influence is what informed the covers that the Pietasters played and the originals they wrote trying to emulate their favorite bands. From Two-Tone Ska, to Jamaican crooners like Alton Ellis, to Stax, Motown, harDCore, and British Punk, the Pietasters played what they liked to play and the house partiers appreciated the mix and crammed into basements and living rooms for sweaty all night keg drinking and dancing.

Playing on weekends and during the summer they slowly expanded their touring area, made new friends, and gained the notice of music fans up and down the east coast. The influence of D.C.’s DIY punk scene informed the band of how you should tour, on your own terms. After releasing a self-titled album in 1993 they hit the road in an old school bus and headed west. Relentless touring through the early 90s got them friends all over the U.S.A. MOON Records took notice and the band released two albums, Oolooloo, and Strapped LIVE, on that storied label during the magic days of third wave ska alongside bands like Hepcat, The Slackers, Toasters, etc.

In 1997 Hellcat/Epitaph signed the band to a two album deal. Willis, and Awesome Mix Tape #6 followed. Both albums benefited from the direction of legendary producer Brett Gurewitz. At the same time ska blew up. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, No Doubt, and Sublime ruled the airwaves. The Pietasters were lucky enough to tour extensively with The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. The Plaid Boys from Boston introduced the Pietasters to Europe and beyond as well as taking them on tours of the US and Canada. From this point on, the Pietasters were established as one of the best live shows money can buy. From the circus that is the Warped tour (US/Canada/Europe) to a once in a lifetime support slot with Joe Strummer, the Pietasters crisscrossed the world, leaving the dance floor covered in blood, sweat and beer.

After the 2002 release of Turbo on Fueled by Raman the Pietasters’ hard work was rewarded with more good luck. In 2003 the Pietasters were chosen to back James Brown at the WHFS Holiday Nutcracker Ball at Washington, D.C.’s MCI Center (now Verizon Center). This was no support slot: this was the Pietasters playing as Mr. Brown’s band for the night. This was the start of a friendship with the Godfather of Soul that lasted until his passing.

All of these influences, events, and memories were distilled in the band’s 2007 release All Day. The album showcases how the band grew from playing sweaty house parties to sweaty nightclubs to sharing the stage with some of the world’s best musical talents. While playing live they can’t get away with not including most of Oolooloo in the set, but they try to slip in as many cuts from All Day as they can. The Pietasters continue to deliver a world-class performance of their style of Ska, Rock and Soul – sing along songs and dance-through-your-socks rhythms played by friends who remain true to their roots. A new album is in the works and they can’t wait to get back to a club near you.


Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
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The new album from Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band was written by candlelight and then recorded using the best technology available in the 1950s.
But listeners won’t find another album as relevant, electrifying and timely as “Dance Songs for Hard Times.”

Scheduled for independent release April 9, 2021, via Thirty Tigers, “Dance Songs for Hard Times” conveys the hopes and fears of pandemic living. Current BMA nominee, Rev. Peyton, the Big Damn Band’s vocalist and world-class fingerstyle guitarist, details bleak financial challenges on the songs “Ways and Means” and “Dirty Hustlin’.” He pines for in-person reunions with loved ones on “No Tellin’ When,” and he pleads for celestial relief on the album-closing “Come Down Angels.”

Far from a depressing listen, “Dance Songs” lives up to its name by delivering action-packed riffs and rhythms across 11 songs. The country blues trio that won over crowds on more than one Warped Tour knows how to make an audience move.

“I like songs that sound happy but are actually very sad,” Peyton says. “I don’t know why it is, but I just do.”

Of course, the greatest front-porch blues band in the world found itself sidelined from a relentless touring schedule because of the coronavirus pandemic. Peyton says he was surprised when his mind and soul unleashed a batch of new songs in March and April of 2020.

“I think it was the stress of everything,” he says. “At the time, we were watching everything we know crash down. I didn’t know what was going to happen with our career, with our house, with food, with anything.”

Peyton wasn’t alone in uncertainty. It’s a feeling that gripped the world. Added to Peyton’s concerns were a lingering illness – perhaps undiagnosed COVID-19 – affecting “Washboard” Breezy Peyton, his wife and Big Damn Band member, as well as a cancer diagnosis for his father. A metaphorical wallop arrived when unpredictable weather in the rustic wilds of Southern Indiana knocked out power at the Peytons’ 150-year-old log cabin. For multiple days.

While Breezy rested and recovered, Peyton crafted songs in near darkness.

“It’s been a struggle the entire time,” he says. “Nothing’s been easy. Other than the music. The music came easy.”

“Too Cool to Dance” might be interpreted as the album’s centerpiece for its message of not taking things for granted. The seize-the-moment anthem offers the chorus, “We may not get another chance. Oh, please don’t tell me you’re too cool to dance.”

“I was thinking about all the times where I’ve been somewhere and felt too cool to dance,” Peyton says. “I didn’t want to be that way. Not being able to do anything last year, I had this feeling of, ‘Man, I’m not going to waste any moment like this in my life – ever.’ ”

Peyton, the cover subject of Vintage Guitar magazine’s January 2020 issue, showcases his remarkable picking techniques on “Too Cool to Dance.” It’s rare to hear a fingerstyle player attack Chuck Berry-inspired licks with index, middle and ring fingers while devoting his or her thumb to a bass line. Yet multi-tasking Peyton has made an art of giving the illusion he’s being accompanied by a bass player, despite the Big Damn Band’s roster featuring no one beyond himself, Breezy on washboard and Max Senteney on drums.

“Too Cool to Dance” heats up thanks to Peyton’s 1954 Supro Dual Tone electric guitar. Once known exclusively for playing acoustic guitar in the tradition of Mississippi icons Charley Patton and Bukka White, Peyton’s country blues seemingly have migrated north and plugged in with Chicago giants Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters.

“It’s crazy,” Peyton says of “Too Cool to Dance.” “It almost feels like a song from the 1950s that’s been lost. At the end of the day, it still somehow feels like us.”

To document the livewire immediacy of “Dance Songs for Hard Times,” the Big Damn Band – including a healthy Breezy – made a pandemic road trip to Nashville to record with producer Vance Powell (four-time Grammy Award winner whose resume includes work with Chris Stapleton and Jack White).

Peyton embraced Powell’s suggestion to turn back the clock and record no more than eight tracks of audio to analog tape. Minimal overdubs are heard on “Dance Songs for Hard Times,” and Peyton sang while playing guitar live in the studio.

“Vance likes the gear that I like,” Peyton says. “And he has a bunch of cool gear I would only have in my wildest dreams.”

Visually, “Dance Songs for Hard Times” is led by a video to accompany the song “Ways and Means.” Defined by pastel colors and confident dance moves, the video was made at an old-school laundromat to match the song’s Bo Diddley boasting on a limited budget: “My knife is sharp, my guitar never flat … king of the laundromat.”

As Peyton says, it’s difficult to create blues music that isn’t personal.

“The song ‘Ways and Means’ was written for all those folks who have the moves, the style, the substance, the talent, but maybe not the seed money or the famous last name,” Peyton says. “All those people who had to work extra hard because they didn’t get to start way ahead. Folks who have been playing catch-up since they were born and had to get really good just to make it to zero.”

As 2020 progressed, Peyton’s father was declared free of cancer following surgery. A new Patreon page (Patreon.com/bigdamnband) helped the band connect with fans and make up some lost wages.

And Big Damn Band supporters around the world check in monthly for pay-what-you-can livestream performances that originate at the Peytons’ log cabin.

Conditions aren’t ideal when compared to pre-pandemic adventures that allowed the Big Damn Band to play for audiences in nearly 40 countries. But those days will return, and in the meantime we have “Dance Songs for Hard Times.”

“Despite the hardships of this moment in history, it created this music that I hope will maybe help some people through it,” Peyton says. “Because it helps me through it to play it.”