Reverend

The Cause of It All is The Revs' new stripped-down collection of blues classics, forged in quarantine with longtime guitarist Chris “Doctor” Roberts. The timing couldn’t be better. Pared down to their essence, these songs speak to our shared sense of vulnerability and isolation, but with the joyful, contagious swagger that has long borne bluesmen – and their listeners – through trouble, into the light.

While they're only a trio, the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band deliver a sound that lives up to their name, with thick, bass-heavy, blues-based guitar figures accompanied by muscular but minimal drumming and the metallic percussive scratch of a washboard (making them one of the first rock bands to regularly feature the latter instrument since Black Oak Arkansas).
The group was formed by guitarist and singer Josh "Reverend" Peyton, who was born and raised in Indiana, and first exposed to music through his father's record collection, which was heavy on Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Dylan - all artists with their own take on the blues…

While they're only a trio, the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band deliver a sound that lives up to their name, with thick, bass-heavy, blues-based guitar figures accompanied by muscular but minimal drumming and the metallic percussive scratch of a washboard (making them one of the first rock bands to regularly feature the latter instrument since Black Oak Arkansas).
The group was formed by guitarist and singer Josh "Reverend" Peyton, who was born and raised in Indiana, and first exposed to music through his father's record collection, which was heavy on Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Dylan - all artists with their own take on the blues…

This album is one of the cornerstones of Riverside Records' "Original Blues Classics" series. Regardless of the moniker, these sides loom large in the available works of seminal blues icons Pink Anderson and Rev. Gary Davis. Both performers hail from the largely underappreciated Piedmont blues scene - which first began to flourish in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - near the North/South Carolina state border. Anderson's seven tracks were recorded in Charlottesville, VA, on May 29, 1950 - while he was literally on the road. His highly sophisticated and self-accompanied style of simultaneously picking and sliding - accomplished using a half-opened jackknife - could pass for an electronic effect…

The Reverend Shawn Amos & The BrotherHood is a deep roots collaboration between the acclaimed blues singer-songwriter and harmonica player and some old friends: drummer Brady Blade (Indigo Girls, Buddy and Julie Miller), bassist Christopher Thomas (Norah Jones, Macy Gray) and longtime Rev guitarist Chris "Doctor" Roberts. Their debut album, Blue Sky (available April 17, 2020) comes on he heels of The Rev’s 2018 acclaimed, politically charged Breaks it Down. 2019 saw him alighting in Texas, where the South begins, the West ends, and something else is taking shape – a world away, geographically and culturally, from his native LA. Here, he gathered together the Brotherhood, creating a sense of home in his rootlessness. Blade, Thomas, and Roberts provide not only musical, but also spiritual and emotional support for embracing new territory, artistically and otherwise.