VIDEO OF THE DAY — “DEVILS LOOK LIKE ANGELS” BY THE REVEREND PEYTON’S BIG DAMN BAND

Sporting one of the best beards in the business, the Reverend J. Peyton has been leading his trio, the Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, through a rollicking brand of foot-stomping country blues for the last decade. On such albums as The Pork n’ Beans Collection, Big Damn Nation, The Whole Fam Damnily, and The Wages, Peyton, a real-life Kentucky Colonel, evokes such heroes as Charley Patton, B.B. King, and Jimi Hendrix. On the Indiana-based group’s latest record, Between the Ditches (SideOneDummy, August 2012), guitarist Peyton, his wife, “Washboard” Breezy Peyton, and drummer Aaron “Cuz” Persinger, whose kit includes a five-gallon bucket, take listeners on a thrilling journey through the back roads of America, proclaiming on the opener, “Devils Look Like Angels,” that “the devil don’t live / down in hell / the devil’s right here / doing very well / and it’s hard to tell / it’s hard to tell / when the devils look like angels / and angels look like hell.” Peyton went through hell himself when he was told as a teenager that he would never be able to properly use his left hand again on the six-string, but he proved the doctors wrong, and he continues to defy belief on Between the Ditches. “On this record, people are gonna think that there’s two guitars on it, and there’s not,” he explained at the album release show at Indy CD and Vinyl in August. “I promise, I swear, there’s no iPod, there’s no computer, there’s no loop pedal, there’s no guy hiding behind somewhere. It is all me, all right? My thumb plays bass, just like this. While my thumb’s playing bass, my fingers play the lead. Simple as that.” On the new disc, the group tears it up on such songs as “Big Blue Chevy ’72,” “Shake ’em Off Like Fleas,” “Brokedown Everywhere,” and “Something for Nothing,” creating a big yet intimate sound that just plain kicks ass. Known for their exuberant live shows where just about anything can happen, Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band will be at Mercury Lounge on December 9 with Johnnie Lee Jordan and the Boys and Rosco Bandana. “I have felt a lot of love from our fans lately,” the rev. recently wrote on his blog, “and I just want to say that I promise to always bring you real, handmade, from the heart, organic music in return.” That’s a lot better deal than one with the devil.