Taylor Steele & The Love Preachers star in Normal

“I was driven in this direction,” she said.

As the frontwoman of the Effingham-based band Taylor Steele & The Love Preachers, she performs songs in the roots rock and Americana genres with stylistic influences from folk, bluegrass, country, blues and more. In an interview, she described roots rock as an ode to foundational musicians such as Doc Watson, a famous bluegrass player, and folk singers Jack Elliot and Pete Seeger.

Steele said her band Love Preachers could be compared to The Band, a Canadian-American band that wrote “The Weight,” a song featured in the 1969 film “Easy Rider.”

Steele, 26, of Watson in Effingham County, is bringing The Love Preachers to play a three-hour set at Destihl Brewery and Beer Hall, 1200 Greenbriar Drive, Normal, on Saturday starting at 6 p.m. Admission to the show is free.

Steele said they will also mark the debut of their new guitarist Larry Passalacqua on Saturday.

When she’s not performing or writing music, Steele also does marketing for Fox Holler, a drive-in cafe owned by her boyfriend at 1200 S. Banker St. in Effingham.

Love Preachers bassist Garrett Burris is also the promoter of the second annual Summer Sundown Music Festival in Effingham, which will be held September 13-15. Taylor Steele’s band will play at the festival on September 14. Tickets are $90 for the weekend, with day passes available for September 14 and 15.

Old Shoe plays American roots rock and jams at the album release show in Bloomington

Before she began playing guitar at age 8, Steele sang ’50s and ’60s rock hits like “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” on stage with her mother’s boyfriend in the St. Louis area. The boyfriend’s father, nicknamed “Big Bull,” took Steele in as his granddaughter, accompanying her on songs like Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and taking her to bluegrass jam sessions at a general store.

Steele grew up in Collinsville. She said her “stepfather” (he and her mother never married) was a lead guitarist in bar bands and they spent a lot of time together.

Even after her mother separated from Steele’s stepfather, she continued to spend time with him and his family, and she still does.

“My grandfather played old country western and swing guitar and was just obsessed and had this huge, deep, great love for music, especially old country music,” Steele said.

She said that as a child she imitated everything her grandfather did and that he spent a lot of time learning songs and writing music.

“I think his patience with me and his encouragement to just go with it helped me,” Steele said. “I never really rebelled against it, ever.”

“It was love that I felt since I was very small.”

Minnesota act brings folk and four-part harmony singing to the Bloomington stage

Steele said she started playing her own bar gigs when she was 18, even though she was not yet of legal drinking age. The gigs lasted three hours and brought in $150.

“I just started doing it as often as I could,” she said.

After playing with two hippies in a band called Wildflower Conspiracy, Steele formed The Love Preachers in 2017.

In 2019, Steele & The Love Preachers released their first album, “Searching,” which is available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, and Bandcamp.

Folk artists from Bloomington bring a bit of country and a bit of city to Saturday’s show

It begins with the track “Jeremiah,” which Steele said is a profound song about life after death.

“That was one of the first songs I wrote when I was a kid. And it’s kind of a self-realization that… oh, those songs were good back then. We’re going to keep them (on The Love Preachers),” she said.

Another track is “Creature,” which Steele said she wrote when she was dating her first boyfriend in high school. She said the song was like a daydream for her into the future, imagining what love could be like.

In the coming weeks, Steele expects her band to finish mastering and release their next album, “High Feeling.” She said the title track has Grateful Dead and Waylon Jennings vibes, “but it’s very organic… it’s not too much of one thing.”

She called it a “perfect mix” of many styles that fit together.

Steele said her grandfather, “Big Bull,” died of COVID in 2020 and she has lost other members of her family as well.

“This album came out of that healing,” Steele said. “And many of the songs are like a tribute to my grandparents.”

She said the new album has more of an old country feel and some outlaw country. Saturday’s show will feature new material.

About half of The Love Preachers’ songs are covers, the other half are originals, mostly written by Steele.

Two singles following “Searching” are also available to stream. In May 2021, The Love Preachers released the single track “Loving Hands,” which sets Steele’s deeply moving vocals at a pleasantly steady tempo and hits just the right amount of twang.

In a track description on Bandcamp, “Loving Hands” refers to an artist being embraced at a music festival and surrounded by equally creative people who are willing to teach others how to become better artists.

In 2022, the single “Anna Lee” was released, written by the original guitarist of the Preachers, Jim Stewartwho will rejoin the band at the Sundown Music Festival in September.

Steele said the first line of the song gives an idea of ​​the personality of “Anna Lee.”

“Maybe this guy has an idea about her, and she’s elusive and … they’ll never be together, but she’s captivating, draws him in and puts on a performance in the most unconditional way,” she said.

Steele added that the songs she usually writes come from a personal perspective and that it’s funny how “Anna Lee” visualizes the flow of a story.

“That’s why I love singing this song so much,” Steele said, “because it excites me that it’s not my own personal story and I can sing … and breathe energy or life into that story and a story outside of me.”

Mace Hathaway plays Americana music at The Stable on Friday