The members of local reggae band Dr. Jah and the Love Prophets have been known to wear some unusual things onstage during the band’s 20-year history, from funny hats to mushroom suits.

But the band’s early 1990s performance at The Phoenix Nature Resort nudist colony in Washington County, since closed, perhaps takes the cake for most unusual stage costumes. At this show, Dr. Jah became the first band to perform at the colony naked.

“I got there for the meeting to talk about [the show], and I’d never been to a nudist colony before, so I was like, ‘OK, cool,’ and I took my clothes off in the car,” said guitarist, vocalist and founding member David Geoghegan during a recent interview from his home in Ravena, also the band’s practice and recording space. “I went into the meeting and I opened the door, and there they all are, fully clothed. . . . So they were a little amused with us.”

The nudist colony show reflects the sense of freedom that has guided Dr. Jah throughout the past two decades. The band will celebrate its 20th anniversary (fully clothed, and not dressed as mushrooms, either) with a performance Friday night () at Revolution Hall in Troy.

Many have contributed

For the show, the group’s current members — Geoghegan; co-founder, guitarist and vocalist Pete O’Hearn; drummer Steve Gifford; and newcomers Aston Ellis on bass and David Oliver on keyboards — will be joined by nearly every musician who has been in the band in the past. The list includes many familiar names from the Capital Region music scene, including Adrian Cohen, Dave Kavanaugh and recently departed bassist Brian Miller, along with some national names — former bassist Dave Woolworth now plays with Kudzu Kings.

Geoghegan estimates the band has had roughly seven drummers and five bass players throughout its history.

While no one lineup of the group has lasted for much longer than three years, the band’s driving forces have always been Geoghegan and O’Hearn. The two met as students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, having performed together and separately in Grateful Dead and Beatles cover bands. Geoghegan’s desire to play reggae music led him to pull together the first version of Dr. Jah in 1988, and he soon convinced O’Hearn to join.

“You know, none of us really knew how to play reggae, or had ever been in a reggae band,” Geoghegan said. “Pete was the only one who had ever seen a reggae band live; Pete saw Bob Marley once. So we just started woodshedding, listening to a bunch of records, and I would buy records and listen to them and I’d be like, ‘This song we could play in the band.’ ”

At that time, reggae in the Capital Region music scene was relegated to Sir Walford’s weekend radio show on WRPI, which helped turn the members of Dr. Jah on to the genre. The band initially had some difficulties carving a niche on the scene.

“We’re all white dudes playing reggae,” Geoghegan said. “You know, people would book us and they’d be like, ‘What? Where’s the rest of the guys?’ ”

Establishing a following

Weekly shows at the Lark Tavern in Albany and an association with the Rye Bread festivals in Schaghticoke helped Dr. Jah develop a loyal fan base. Over the years, the group has opened for The Wailers, Ominous Seapods, moe. and other major players on the national jam band and reggae scenes. The band also hosts the annual Jah Fest at Geoghegan’s house in Ravena, and performs regularly on the Blues Express train in Cooperstown. In the past, Dr. Jah has played everywhere from Mississippi, to California, to the 17th High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam in 2004, which was filmed for a DVD release.

The group’s original material combines elements of psychedelia, jamming and even some electronic music (Geoghegan plays synth with his guitar) with lockstep reggae rhythms. This approach is readily apparent on songs such as “Plan Nine from Inner Space” and “Come Down From the Mountain,” one of the band’s signature tunes.

“You have the purest reggae dudes who didn’t like us because we did that,” Geoghegan said. ‘We really liked that improvisational, kind of attack-it-onstage thing, and that was really unusual for reggae bands. Even nowadays, you don’t see reggae bands that take guitar solos; it’s just not the gig.”

Dr. Jah’s recorded output includes two CDs, the most recent being 2005’s “Who Feels It Knows It,” and the 1992 cassette “Black and White,” now available at the band’s Web site, www.jahworld.com. The group also plans to debut new material from its coming album at the anniversary show. Gifford, a 10-year veteran of the band, helped set up the group’s recording space in a converted chicken coop, which will hopefully allow Dr. Jah to increase its recorded output.

After 20 years, the band is still excited to be making this music, and hopes to continue to spread its “message of love.”

“Sometimes, you get a gift, and if you don’t use it, I think that’s lame,” Geoghegan said. “We’re all put here for our own special little purposes, and one of ours is to play this kind of music and express ourselves in this way.”