by:Mary Rose Roberts The blues still live in Southern juke joints cluttered with jugs of moonshine, smoky clubs on the south side of Chicago and in Koko Taylor, the Queen Of The Blues, whose gritty vocals and rural twang swing into Shryock this Saturday.

Born Koko Walton in Memphis, Tenn., in 1938, Taylor said she was encouraged by her father to sing only gospel music, but instead she and her three brothers and three sisters would sneak out back with their homemade instruments to play the blues.

My brother played a fife harmonica out of a corncob and the other made a guitar out of nails and bailing wire, she said.

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Taylor said she moved to Chicago with her husband Robert Pops Taylor in 1953, where she found employment as a house keeper and sang club gigs on the side.

I started singing in clubs in Chicago when I realized the artists surrounding me were the guys I listened to in Memphis, she said. All of them went up there, like Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy and Willie Dixon.

Taylor’s big break came in 1964 when Dixon set her up with a Chess Records recording contract leading to the 1965 hit Wang Dang Doodle which established her as the world’s top female blues singer, Taylor said.

I used to go down to a place called Jew-town (Chicago’s Maxwell Street) and stand and watch all the musicians play, she said. One musician would stand behind the next, playing instruments like the guitar and the harmonica. It was a jam session and as fun as a picnic. People would be selling food and listening to music. I used to do it every Sunday until Wang Dang Doodle came outthen I was working.

When they tore down Maxwell Street I felt sad, Taylor said. All of the history was lost and erased. But I always have the memories and so many good times.

In 1972, Taylor formed her own band, The Blues Machine, which signed to Alligator Records in 1975. The band produced six albums and performed on more than 8 compilations. On March 3, 1993, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley presented Taylor with the Legend of The Year award which recognizes legendary Chicago artists. Taylor said she feels honored to be known as the Queen Of The Blues.

It puts a spell on me when people come out to hear and see me, she said. It is such a good feeling.

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Taylor said her friendship with blues legends like B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Willie Dixon is normal.

We all knew each other from growing up in the South, and we have all been close throughout the years, she said.

People are rediscovering roots music like blues recordings, which are more popular today than they have ever been, Taylor said.

The young people are getting blues into their ears, she said.

After the show is over, Taylor said she leaves the stage behind and follows the normal daily routine.

When I am home, I’m no longer Koko. I become mother and grandmother, she said. I wash dishes and do chores around the house like everybody else.

Taylor said she prefers to play smaller venues, like clubs, compared to larger concert halls.

It doesn’t really matter, she said. But when I gig at a club it means people can come up to me and shake my hand and say hello. I like that.

Taylor said she just finished a three week long west coast tour that began in San Francisco and ended in Montana. Her newest gig is her own place, Koko Taylor’s Blues Club on Division St. in Chicago, which opened March 3, 1995. Taylor said favorite venues to play are the ones when fans get into what she is doing.

I’d walk into my backyard with ten people and sing just as hard if I was in front of 10,000 in an auditorium, she said.

Koko Taylor plays Saturday at Shryock Auditorium. Tickets are $10 at the Student Center ticket office and at Shryock one hour prior to the 8 p.m. show.