Redbone: Messaage From A Drum

Red bone: a cajun term that describes an individual of having mixed race.

Redbone is also the name of a hardhitting Native American rock band and is remembered as the first commercially successful American Indian rock group from the U.S. Forming together in 1968, they named themselves after Cajun term "Redbone" due to the fact that each member came from a different Native American tribe (members were descedants from Cherokee, Apache, Yaqui and Shoshone). Content of the early years of the band consisted on different styles of Rock, such as psyche-rock, swamp-rock and surf rock. Years later the band would eventually conform to the invading wave of disco, gaining mass appeal with the release of their dance hit, "Come and Get Your Love," which by popularity, is said to be their biggest song of all time. After two more albums and some disco compilations, the group disbanded.

The two half-Mexican and Native American founding brothers of the band, Patrick and Lolly Vasquez, were born in Fresno, CA, where they worked in migrant camps of cotton fields and apricot orchards. Prior to the banding of Redbone, the two brothers developed their musical talent and career at an early age, performing as a duo and making recordings under multiple names: the Avantis, the Routers, the Mar-kets, Hottrodders' Choice, the Sharks and the Deuce Coupes. (even somewhere along the way, change their last name from Vasquez to Vegas) Throughout the 1960s, the Vasquez brothers followed with the trends of surf rock, releasing songs such as "Big Surf" and "Surf Stomp." They were also members of a band titled the Shindigs, where they played with Leon Russell and Delaney Bramllet as a house band for the popular television sitcom Shindig. It was in Los Angeles where the brothers came up with the idea to form Redbone; however, Patrick claims that it was Jimi Hendrix, who is also half Indian, who pushed for the band, emphasizing to the duo the importance of ethnic roots. Patrick: "He'd say 'Native American is beautiful, man, be proud of that.'"





The band's third album, Message From A Drum, came out in 1970. Although in Europe the album was released as The Witch Queen of New Orleans and with a different cover. The European release also featured the additional track, "Chant: The 13th hour," which was not released in the U.S. until the album was reissued on CD in the early 2000s. The album features the classic Cajun swamp-rocker song "Witch Queen From New Orleans," which resembles a swamp-rock style similar to the songs of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Niji Trance opens up with some native like-chanting before thrusting into this powerful combo with the drums and gutiar that keeps your head banging for more. I used to think it was the sample to Black Milk's "Sound The Alarm," although I was proven wrong after learning that Milk samples it off of Steve Miller's "Space Intro" (I had major doubts to begin with). I actually combined two songs in this next track because I thought the two made an excellent pair in expressing the band's creativity. Perico warms up into a spacey psychedellic trance of an intro, Fate then blasts off into some Funky beats by Pete "Last Walking Bear" DePoe, followed by the harmonic voice of Lolly who sings about crumbled empires, men with uncontrollable power and wealth, how fate is decided after death and various topics revolving upon good prevailing over evil. Near the end of Fate, the song gets down with some rushing guitar solos by either Lolly or Pat and slowly fades as the song prepares for a explosion.

Members of the Band (copied and pasted from musicianguide.com):

Aloisio Aguiar (joined group, 1977), keyboards, drums;
Anthony "Tony" Bellamy (left group, 1977), guitar;
Peter DePoe (also known as Last Walking Bear; left group, 1972), drums;
Arturo Perez (left group, 1973), drums;
Butch Rillera (group member, 1973-77), drums;
Lolly Vegas (born Vasquez), guitar, vocals;
Patrick Vegas (born Vasquez), bass guitar.




Witch Queen From New Orleans

Niji Trance

Fate (intro-ed by Perico)