The blues tree has two branches, Josh Peyton says.

The city branch produced electric guitar heroes B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan. The country branch yielded earthy mystery men such as Charley Patton and Robert Johnson.

File the Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band under “country blues,” but the trio’s growing popularity is more than small-town news.

Current album “The Whole Fam Damnily” debuted at No. 4 on Billboard magazine’s blues chart and has sold more than 9,000 copies since its release last August, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Yet the band’s work doesn’t always register with listeners who define the genre in terms of formulaic, 12-bar chord progressions.

“I’ve had people say, ‘Man, well your stuff ain’t really blues,’ " Peyton said. “I try real hard not to be as rigid when it comes to music. What I’m really into is good songs. As a songwriter, you get a feel for how hard it is to write a good song. It doesn’t matter what it is.”

Based in Brown County, Peyton celebrates apple butter, tenderloin sandwiches and other Hoosier treats on “The Persimmon Song.” He says a tune titled “My Brother Stole a Chicken from the Fort Wayne Zoo” likely will appear on the band’s next album.

Peyton’s only brother is Jayme Peyton, who plays drums in the Big Damn Band. Josh’s wife, Breezy, plays the washboard.

Josh, a certified Kentucky Colonel and ordained minister, plays resonator acoustic guitar in the tradition of 1930s bluesman Son House.

“It’s not like a piano,” he said. “You hit a key, ‘dink, dink, dink,’ and that’s the note. With slide guitar, it’s limitless — an infinite number of notes.”

The Big Damn Band’s fiery execution of its country blues landed the trio on 12 West Coast dates of the Warped Tour — known as the definitive punk rock caravan — this month.

Averaging more than 200 shows for the past three years, the Big Damn Band has visited 12 European countries.

Peyton says no audience is taken for granted.

“They don’t know that we broke down on the way or that we got robbed or the club’s staff has been a bunch of jerks since we walked in the door,” he says. "All they know is that they spent their money to see us play.

“For them, it’s special. I want it to be something that’s special.”