Moroccan Sheepherders

The music of the Moroccan Sheepherders is difficult to categorize. It is a thick, heady, melange of genres ranging from tribal ambient trance to hard-core blue-eyed blues-rock. The overarching foundation of the band's sound is dual percussion of Craig and Kyle who together draw on, African, Latin, and traditional rock influences to create a hard-driving rhythmic landscape. It's a landscape of desert sands, forgotten savannas and thick dark jungles both real and imagined.

The beats they craft come straight from the deep core and ancient past of our ancestors and given such origins are irresistible. The most jaded of us are moved into motion by these primal percussive forces.
Steve, lead guitarist, creates a melodic structure, which is influenced by many guitar greats past and present but forges a sound, which is both familiar and distinct. This sound varies between thick oscillating ambient sheets of notes, which wash over the listener like ocean waves, to a alien, underwater, psychedelic, solo voice, which convinces us clearly that were not in Kansas anymore. No, far from it.
The bass guitar of Scott bridges the percussion and melodic structure. At times acting as attractive force keeping the music together and other times expanding the mix with furious improvisation Burton acts as the connective tissue of this power quartet's sound. Often muted but ever present, the bass emerges in shining moments as hard-core funk, grungy blue walks, and angular jazz riffs.
The band's primary musical motif is the extended ever-morphing instrumental jam. Sheepherder songs are constructed with entry and exit ramps that allow for the ensemble to leave the more frequently traveled musical paths and explore long stretches of musical back roads, vistas, and sometimes dark foreboding places. Lyrics that cover the same breadth of expression are often included in the mix. Craig's vocalizations also range from actual ?singing? to more spoken, Ken Nordine, ?word-jazz? sessions.
In addition to these often soaring musical forays, the Sheepherders have created studio distillations many of their lengthy explorations. These ?MAD JAM?s are not watered down but actually more concentrated forms of their music. They are the archetypes of their style.
Which brings us to the most challenging question of how to categorize the music of the Moroccan Sheepherders. I think many will undoubtedly place them in the same box as the Grateful Dead or more appropriately with more modern bands like Phish or the String Cheese Incident. While MSH do share some qualities with these bands they also are drawing from a much deeper well one that includes rich draughts of the pure waters of such groups as The Mothers, King Crimson, The Allman Bros. And Led Zeppelin. In the final analysis the Sheepherders defy simple categorization. I think philosophically the band wants it that way. Much of what they are doing is about pure joy and not packaging. They have consciously been improvising, not only their songs, but their style as well. Just like improvisation seeks to break the bonds of dull repetition MSH seeks to avoid suffocating comparisons which would otherwise constrain their creativity. They have not limited themselves and why should they? Why should anyone?