Redbone was the first Native-American rock band. Formed by brothers Pat and Lolly Vasquez, legend has it, at the suggestion of Jimi Hendrix, the band took their name from a Cajun slang for someone of mixed race. They considered their music New Orleans-influenced music “swamp rock” (despite the fact that the brothers hailed from Fresno, California) and were quite successful in the early 1970s. Their highest charting records were “Come and Get Your Love,” which went gold in 1974 and the politically-minded “We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee” which made it to #1 in the Netherlands in 1973, but was initially suppressed in America, with several radio stations refusing to play it.

In recent years, an “impostor” Redbone has been playing around the country, convincing bookers that some of the players were original members of the group. On March 4, 2010, Lolly Vasquez died of lung cancer, passing away in his sleep in Reseda, California.

“Come and Get Your Love” is now used as a jingle in the Alltel commercials. Here is a great live version from The Midnight Special.