Steve Taylor

    Steve Taylor

    Nashville, Tennessee6 reviews across 5 releases

    alternative rockmodern rockpunkrock
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    Steve Taylor is an American singer-songwriter who began in contemporary Christian music before forming the Nashville alternative-rock band Chagall Guevara in 1989. That group brought him closer to college-rock and punk-influenced writing, while its breakup led to his solo return. The 1993 album Squint moved beyond the direct satire of his earlier work into modern alternative rock, with aggressive guitars, pseudo-industrial passages and occasional oddities such as reggae and rock opera. Taylor wrote and produced it himself. His lyrics still confronted smug Christianity, family breakdown and commercialism, but the writing had become more metaphorical and personally revealing. Songs about a man trapped in self-help culture appeared beside a tribute to football spectators holding John 3:16 signs. The 1995 live album Liver preserved that range in faster, rougher performances.

    In 1992, Chagall Guevara split after MCA dropped the group during a restructuring, and Taylor returned to solo work while producing records for the Newsboys. Squint followed in 1993 on Warner Alliance, then Sparrow Records issued the retrospective Now the Truth Can Be Told in 1994, accompanied by a career video. Taylor founded Squint Entertainment in the late 1990s, signing or developing artists while continuing to work in music and film. The company lost its financial backing in 2001, ending his tenure there. In 2010 he formed Steve Taylor & the Perfect Foil with Peter Furler, Jimmy Abegg and John Mark Painter; the group released Goliath in 2014 and the EP Wow to the Deadness in 2016. Chagall Guevara reunited for a Nashville concert in 2022.

    5 releases reviewed