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TAYLOR STEELE
songwriter / vocals / acoustic resonator / electric guitar
Taylor has been exposed to old country and bar band blues/rock since she could talk & walk. She started getting up to sing on stage with her mom's boyfriend, Bill, who played lead guitar in various bands across metro east St. Louis at age 4. She would sing 50's & 60's rock songs like Good Golly Miss Molly (Little Richard), Devil With a Blue Dress (Mitch Ryder), Do Wah Diddy Diddy (Manfred Mann), & Walking the Dog (Rufus Thomas) and sometimes even strum on an unplugged acoustic guitar on stage, without knowing any chords of course. She grew up in Collinsville, IL with her single mother who always encouraged her talent. Bill's father, Bill Sr. , took Taylor in as his grandaughter and taught her to play guitar at age 8. He would take her to bluegrass jam sessions at the Millersburg General Store on Sundays where she would sit in with the circle of seasoned players trying to keep up with each song. She would also sing songs like Crazy (Patsy Cline), I Wanna Be a Cowgirl's Sweetheart (Patsy Montana) and Your Cheatin' Heart (Hank Williams) while her grandpa (she always called him Big Bull) would accompany her on guitar. Being exposed to all of this music and retaining basic song structure allowed songwriting to come naturally. Taylor started writing at age 11 and would spend hours in her room getting lost in learning new songs and writing her own all throughout her preteen/teen years.
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In 2012 she moved in with her dad and started her freshman year of high school in Greenville, IL. She became apart of the weekly open mic at what was Adam Brother's Music and Coffee House downtown where she met many of the people that would become important and supportive in her life. A small artistic community embraced her. She befriended two older hippie musicians that made up the band Wildflower Conspiracy and spent much of her free time jamming with them in their living room and sharing original songs and stories. After graduating high school, she moved into the historic jailhouse in Greenville on College Ave with her friend and woman mentor Deb Garde, who had played bass at the Adam Bros open mic.
While living there she started gigging and worked part time at the local country radio station WGEL as a DJ.
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She discovered the Effingham, IL music community when she met Bill Poss in 2015. She started attending Bill's Songwriter Open Mic at Village Wine downtown and became a regular. She was welcomed by a whole group of musicians and music supporters that played a part in supporting original music in the community and helped make Mocassin Creek Music Festival, put on by Bill each year, happen. This open mic is also where she met all of her future band mates. She played as a solo artist for the first time at Moccasin Creek Festival at age 18 and moved to Effingham in 2017.
At Moccasin Creek Festival in 2017, she sang onstage with Ray Wylie Hubbard on "You Gotta Move" during his encore performance.
Since the Love Preachers formed in 2017, she continuously elevates her stage performance and singing ability as if she has broken out of her shell and is singing for the whole world to hear.
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She now lives in Teutopolis, IL with her coffee roasting boyfriend Danny and their dog Ellie as a full time musician and a music mentor and teacher through Tri Music NFP.
JAMES STEWART
electric lead guitar / vocals
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James “fell hard” for the guitar when he was a kid growing up in Southern California. His family later settled in Alabama when James was 14 and, over time, he became part of Alabama’s musical community, playing rock, jazz, blues and country in a number of different groups, including the University of Alabama Jazz Ensemble. James, his wife Carla, and daughters Hayden and Callie have been fortunate to live abroad and in several cities in the US – each place offering new opportunities to meet great friends and play some wonderful music. James and Carla currently live in Effingham.
His stylistic influences include guitarists Duane Allman, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Wes Montgomery, Mark Knopfler, Joe Walsh, Derek Trucks, & Jeff Beck. (to name a few) His style meshes perfectly alongside Taylor's unique finger-picking guitar style. Jim lets his notes breathe and doesn't overplay, lending effect and emphasis on Taylor's songwriting. Due to the varying styles that come through in Taylor's music, Jim is able to showcase his many strengths including spacious steel-guitar licks, thick rhythm, swampy slide, and smooth heartfelt solos.
GARRETT BURRIS
bass / vocals
Garrett started playing music at age 12 and fell in love with rock & roll from the records he'd listen to with his dad. He had several garage bands in high school, but never thought that he would be working full time at age 30 doing all things musical. He graduated from Lakeland Radio College in 2009 and graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelors in communications in 2011. He later interned at Belleayre Music Festival in Pine Hill, NY in the summer of 2012, where he became employed as their production manager in the summer of years 2013 & 2014. In 2016 he became the director of the Belleayre Music Festival NFP group. Burris also lived in Chicago briefly in 2013 where he found an awesome DIY music community that inspired him to keep writing and producing original music.
Garrett now co-founds and produces Summer Sundown Music Festival in Effingham, Il with his roommate Andrew Evans in parternship with Poss Music Works NFP. (Andrew is a huge supporter of TSLP and the artist behind our logo and album art.) The festival is now in its second year. He is also a blues/country/60's rock influenced singer & songwriter and started his first solo independent album "Fossil Fuels" in 2014 while living in New York. Once he moved back home to Central Illinois he started Bathtub Hooch Band. They have now been playing together for 5 years. Other than laying down our tasty bass lines and matching his voice with Taylor's, you can find him hosting a weekly
open mic at Chaser's in Effingham and organizing shows.
KYLE HEYNEN
drums / percussion / vocals
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Kyle studied for 2 years at the Collective School of Music in NYC with world renowned teachers. He holds a 2 year certificate degree with a background in various styles including jazz, funk, afro, Cuban, blues, and New Orleans style music. He has played and currently works with the Jed Adam Band and the Six String Summit project as a member of the backing band. He lives in Effingham with his girlfriend Shelby and their bichon/shih tzu mix Loki. We have been amazed to have him as a love preacher. He adds so much expertise and precision to our sound.
NICK SZWEDO
keys
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