Stiff Necked Fools band members are Stefan Poole (from left), Greg Pitts, Jason Ball, John Hoffman, John Bundrick and Ryan Viser.
Aside from the stink of marijuana emanating from the set of the 2008 stoner comedy "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay," which was filmed in the Shreveport-Bossier City area, Northwest Louisiana and Jamaica would seem to have little in common.
But in recent years, an unusual sound has been heard coming from the clubs of Shreveport-Bossier, one that has more in common with Bob Marley than native son Leadbelly. The members of the six-piece band Stiff Necked Fools, who make their Memphis debut Saturday at the Young Avenue Deli, call their music bayou reggae.
"We play modern-day reggae with a lot of dub influences, but I think what really sets us apart is our horn players," says trumpet player Ryan Viser. "They're very New Orleans-style. If you ever listen to New Orleans horn players, they're very energetic. They're very vivacious and in your face. That's really how me and Stefan Poole, our sax player, have been influenced."
Guitar player Dan Sanchez founded the group. He had moved to Shreveport-Bossier a decade earlier from his native Los Angeles to work in the area's casinos. He formed a blues band, one of those groups that serves as a training ground for a rotating cast of young musicians, called at first the Dan Sanchez Band and eventually Dan Sanchez & the Kings of Pleasure. In 2005, the group won the emerging artist award at Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival.
By 2009, however, Sanchez was tiring of the blues.
"He had decided that he didn't really want to play the blues any more and wanted to take the band in a new direction and start it over as a reggae band," says guitarist John Bundrick of the leader's musical about face.
The band took its new name from the song of the same name, a staple of their early sets originally by Bob Marley & the Wailers. And despite the abrupt change in direction, the group managed to find a new audience.
"There's definitely a different group of fans now," says Bundrick. "At the time we came out, I think our town was sort of begging for something like what we're doing. It was kind of a quick and easy transition into making new fans."
Sadly, just a few months after relaunching the band as Stiff Necked Fools, Sanchez, 45, died of cancer. The band faced the prospect of moving forward without him.
"We were just in limbo," says Bundrick. "We literally were just at a standstill and couldn't figure out what we wanted to do, whether it was going to die out or whether we wanted to get serious and keep it going. And we made the decision to be as serious a band as we can."
In May the band released its first album, Too Much Rain, and dedicated it to Sanchez.
"We actually named it after a song he wrote," says Bundrick of the record, the making of which, given the size and inexperience of the band, was long and laborious. "There's an outro on our album which is a bit of that song as an homage to Dan."
With the album out, Stiff Necked Fools, who are currently trying to raise funds for a van so they don't have to carpool to gigs anymore, are looking to take their reggae out of the bayou, with Memphis one of their first stops.
"Just because of where we're going to be, we might bust out a blues song from our past," says Bundrick. "Just to be silly, being as it is Memphis."
Stiff Necked Fools
Saturday at the Young Avenue Deli, 2119 Young Ave. Doors open at 9 p.m. Cover: $5. For more information, call (901) 278-0034 or visit youngavenuedeli.com.
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