Inspiration strikes in unusual places and the origins of the Steepwater Band’s name is no different.
Jeff Massey of Crown Point, Indiana, is the lead singer and guitarist for the Steepwater Band, which plays a mix of gritty blues-rock. The band performs at 8 p.m. Feb. 24 at The Venue in Aurora.
The name came from a barge he spotted that was docked in Lake Michigan as he was driving on the Bishop Ford Expressway in Chicago, he said.
“There was a barge in the water and … it said, ‘Warning steep water’ on the side,” he said. “My buddy goes, ‘What about the Steepwater Band?’ And I liked it, especially when I figured out what it meant. Steepwater is really dirty water. And our music’s kind of rough around the edges and it kind of has a dirty, bluesy rock sound, so Steepwater sounds good.”
He promises Aurora audiences a night of original songs.
“It will probably be a lot of material off the last couple records we put out, then some older material and whatever covers we feel like playing,” he said. “We never do the same show twice and sometimes I never really know until the day of. It will be a good rock ‘n’ roll show, I know that. We’re going to put everything into it.”
The Steepwater Band has issued about a dozen records since forming in 1998. Massey and drummer Joe Winters are the original members. Second guitarist Eric Saylors joined in 2012 and bass player Joe Bishop joined in 2018.
“Joe (Winters) and I were in a blues band; we were called the Big Skinny Blues Band. The singer and piano player wanted to do other things,” Massey said.
“Joe and I … wanted to be more of an original band, we wanted to take the blues and start writing songs. Long story short, the keyboard player-singer left and I started singing. We started Steepwater as an outlet to write songs. And we put more of a rock ‘n’ roll thing to it. As much as we loved the blues, we didn’t want to be a straight blues band. So we formed Steepwater and started writing songs and recording and doing gigs. And we’re still doing it.”
Massey took piano lessons as a child and picked up the guitar when he was 14.
“My mom was always playing piano and I had older brothers and sisters who were always playing music in their bedrooms,” he said. “My family supported music and it was always around. It’s always been a big part of life.”
He grew up in Matteson and started playing in bands immediately after high school, he said. He’s fortunate enough to be able to make a living as a musician, he said.
Steepwater Band is booked all over the country this year. The band writes all original material and adds cover songs in when they want to pay homage.
“We’ll do some Rolling Stones, some Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, there’s a Jerry Garcia song that we do, Chuck Berry – stuff that inspires us and we think fits into our groove and what we do,” he said.
“We’re definitely not a cover band. Nobody hires us to be a cover band. We did do a thing where we did the Rolling Stones’ ‘Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out’ record for Halloween and a lot of promoters caught onto that and were hiring us to do these Stones sets. We did that for a while until it ran its course. Some of the Stones’ songs stuck around and we’ll put them in the set for fun.”
The Steepwater Band’s latest album is called “Return of the Wheel,” because the album before that was called “Turn of the Wheel,” he said, which came out at the same time the global pandemic started. Even though they couldn’t tour to promote it, they issued the record anyway, he said.
The time in lockdown proved inspirational and Massey spent the time writing more songs.
“When things started to open up, we went back into the studio and decided to call it ‘Return of the Wheel’ because it was basically an extension,” he said. “We’re starting to write and think about the next (album), hopefully this year.”
The band tours most weekends and goes to Europe at least once a year, he said, including stops in Spain, Belgium and the United Kingdom, Poland and the Czech Republic.
They’ll hit the Eastern seaboard this spring and Spain this summer. He enjoys touring – to an extent.
“My favorite part is being onstage. There’s a lot of standing around waiting and (being) on the road trying to get to the gig,” he said. “It’s not the big party everybody thinks it is. It’s not Motley Crue in 1983. It’s a lot of work. But we enjoy it. It’s all about getting onstage, that’s why you do it.”
“It’s going to be a busy year. A lot of traveling and playing,” he added.
Aurora audiences can expect a high-energy blues-rock show, he said.
“It’s always fresh for us because we change the set every night,” he said. “People who have seen us multiple times will come back because they know we do that. We put everything into every show.”
The Steepwater Band
When: 8 p.m. Feb. 24
Where: The Venue, 21 S. Broadway Ave., Aurora
Tickets: $15-$20
Information: 331-212-8490; themusicvenue.org
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the Beacon-News.
