WATERLOO - In the 1930s and '40s it wasn't unusual for youngsters to test their boundaries behind the family barn, meeting to tell dirty jokes or sneak a bit of moonshine.

But a young Koko Taylor sought out the shade behind her Memphis home for an entirely different reason.

"My mother had already died, but my aunties would say, 'I told you kids about singing the blues, and I don't want to hear you singing no more,'" she said, adding a big brassy laugh. "We'd sneak behind the house and do it anyway. My little brother blew that harmonica, and I'd sing the blues."

Once she started, Taylor just couldn't stop. Although she never planned to become a famous blues singer, that's exactly what happened. Taylor, born to a sharecropper and trained as a housekeeper, went from tapping her toe as an audience member in Chicago's South Side clubs to stealing the spotlight on the world stage. On Saturday, the 74-year-old brings her raw vocals to Waterloo's Electric Park Ballroom.

After decades in the business, Taylor still belts out blues tunes like she's ducking the Southern sun, squeezing sentiment out of each stanza.

"I'm doin' what I love doin'," Taylor said in a phone interview last week. "I sing even when I don't have to. I got up singin' a song this morning because that's what makes me happy."

And even in a genre that heralds the down-and-out, one can't help but smile when hearing Taylor sing. The Grammy-winning artist, coined Queen of the Blues, has won just about every award the scene has to offer. She holds 28 Blues Music Awards, more than any other performer, and was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1999.

Taylor was mentored by Willie Dixon and has shared the spotlight with blues legends Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Robert Plant. She continues to produce new material, with her latest release, "Old School," receiving critical acclaim. Taylor and her Blues Machine band play some of those new tunes, steeped in '50s grooves, at her concerts. But she also throws in classics like "Wang Dang Doodle" for good measure.

Although health problems sidelined the singer in 2003, Taylor fought her way back to the studio and stage to do what she does best - sing the blues.

"It still speaks loud and clear to me," she said. "I'm doing what Koko wants to do, and I've having a good time doing it."

Contact Mary Stegmeir at (319) 291-1482

or mary.stegmeir@wcfcourier.com.