The Beat Goes On: 25 Years of Music with the Moroccan Sheepherders

By: Cathy Padilla | September 2, 2021 |  Entertainment , Local | 

PHOTO CREDIT: Carmela Caracappa Photography

It was the year the Spice Girls hit the radio waves with their debut single Wannabe, Alanis Morissette was the number one female artist, and Los Del Rio’s Macarena had everyone dancing.

1996 was also the year three guys came together in a home studio and started a band that has lasted for a quarter century and is more popular than ever, entertaining the Jersey Shore and named for an article in National Geographic. The Moroccan Sheepherders (MSH) will celebrate its silver anniversary this month on September 25 at Bar Anticipation in Lake Como.

“Steve’s (Warendorf, Colts Neck) father told him he was writing up a mortgage for a dude with a home studio who plays bass and suggested they meet (Scott Burton of Little Silver). Scott and Steve met and they hit it off. Soon after, Steve, Scott, and I played and we had a band,” explained Craig Smith, a founding band member who performed vocals and drums and now lives in Lancaster, PA.

Craig and Steve had been longtime friends, and not long after Steve invited another childhood friend, Kyle Spendiff, to jam with the fledgling band.

“Steve ran into Kyle outside Becker’s Hardware in Colts Neck and told him about the band,” explained Craig. “Kyle brought his congas and timbales to Steve’s house, we all played, and the band was formed. One day I was reading an article in National Geographic about a group of sheepherders in Morocco and how they jam while their sheep graze. I thought, ‘that’s cool’, so I suggested it to be the name of the band.”

Twenty-five years later, the Moroccan Sheepherders are still going strong. Craig, who Steve credits as having had the most influence on the band, left the group amicably in 2015 when he moved to Pennsylvania. With an ensemble of 12 members, the band defies being simply categorized. It began with the original music of the founding members but has moved to predominantly a cover band that self-admittedly favors the B sides and prefers to play them with their own unique sound.
 

Moroccan Sheepherders at this year’s Artiepalooza at Blossom Cover on the Navesink River. The band held their fingers up to heaven, in honor of their dear friend and Sheepherder Herbi Freeman, who passed last year. Photo Credit: Tom Zapcic Photography
 

“We don’t play the usual covers. We prefer B sides, one hit wonders, more rock edge but commercially palatable,” said Scott. “It’s a very eclectic mix of songs that shouldn’t go together, but we make it work. We all get along and we have fun together. We’ve created something most people only dream about.”

“We sort of pride ourselves on being a ‘B side’ band,” added Laura Catalina Johnson of Rumson who has sung with the band for ten years. “And all the musicians, from the horn players to the guitars to the singers, are so good at what they do. But most of all, the number one thing that I believe sets us apart, is our energy. We have fun together. We bring the audience on a ride with us, and we are just having the time of our lives up there, which is totally contagious. It’s why we can draw the largest crowds around.” Most members of the band are not full-time musicians, except Alicia Rau who sings and plays trumpet and piano. Living in Manhattan, she spends her time as a musician and teaching artist. Others, like Rich Kelly of Toms River, have time-consuming day jobs. Rich owns his own graphic design/ad agency. Christopher Allen, Highlands, is a flight attendant while Pat Murphy, Howell, is an Engineer.

The MSH released two albums, Everyone Needs To Be Herd and Waves, but their cult-like following cares more about the fun atmosphere and comradery the band creates at concerts than it does about any specific song. So much so they started an event called Artiepalooza, the long-standing annual event that rocks Blossom Cove on the Navesink each summer in honor of Art Nastis and to raise money for David’s Dream & Believe Cancer Foundation.
 

On July 24, 2021, attendees for this year’s annual Artiepalooza arrived on sailboats, catamarans, fishing boats, yachts, canoes, kayaks, and thousands of floaties to rock out to the Moroccan Sheepherders for a musical tribute. Photo Credit: Tom Zapcic Photography
 

“You don’t have to ask us what sets us apart, ask our rabid and loyal fans, most of whom we count as friends,” shared Darren Johnson, aka The Cobraman, of Red Bank. He’s been singing with the band for 11 years. “There’s something about us that you just fall in love with. I’m in the band, but when I’m not singing, even I become a fan. I watch one of the best young drummers around in Anthony Flora pound away like there’s no tomorrow. I listen as veteran horn players (The Ram Section) arrange and weave intricate horn lines into classic rock songs that didn’t originally have horns in them to the point that you think the original song is an inferior cover version. I watch singer after singer put their own virtuoso spins on anthems so that you can’t listen to the originals in the same way anymore. And I watch co-founders Steve Warendorf on guitar and Scott Burton on bass smile away like the proud parents of a small, groove-trip jam band that has exploded into a Jersey Shore legend. Yeah, it’s good to be a Sheepherder.”

Current Members of the Moroccan Sheepherders:

Robert Steven Louis Warendorf, Jr., “Steve”, Colts Neck, guitar; Scott Burton, Little Silver, bass; Christopher Bamidele Allen, Highlands, saxophone & percussion; Anthony Flora, Middletown, drums; Alan Manzo, Colts Neck, vocals; Pat Murphy, Howell, vocals & bass guitar; Darren Patrick Johnson, “The Cobraman”, Red Bank, vocals; Laura Catalina Johnson, Rumson, vocals; Rich Kelly, Toms River, vocals & percussion; Alicia Rau, Manhattan, NY, vocals & trumpet; Jesse Ribyat, Atlantic Highlands, trombone; and Trevor Sekel, Howell, Keyboards