Native American Music Association (NAMA) presents a concert featuring NAMA Hall of Fame inductee Redbone and Janice Marie Johnson from A Taste of Honey at 6 p.m. Aug. 16 at White River Amphitheater.
Redbone, featuring founding member Pat Vegas, is a Native American rock group that reached the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1974 with the song “Come And Get Your Love.” The song was certified gold for selling more than one million copies.
Formed in Los Angeles by Patrick Vasquez (Pat Vegas) on bass and vocals and by his brother Lolly, the name Redbone is a reference to the band members’ mixed blood ancestry.
Their first commercial success came with the single “Maggie” from their second album, “Potlatch,” in 1970. They scored another hit song with “The Witch Queen of New Orleans” in 1971.
In 1973 Redbone released the politically oriented “We Were All Wounded At Wounded Knee,” recalling the massacre of Lakota Sioux Indians by the Seventh Cavalry in 1890. The song reached the top of the charts in Europe.
Johnson was founder and principal songwriter of A Taste Of Honey. Their self-titled debut album scored a huge hit in the disco era with the song “Boogie Oogie Oogie,” which garnered the group a Grammy Award for Best New Artist of the Year.
Through the years, Johnson’s songs have been covered, sampled and borrowed many times.
Her latest album was “Hiatus Of The Heart,” which earned her a Nammy Award in 2002 for best producer.
The opening act will be Indigenous, a blues/rock group featuring lead singer, guitarist and primary songwriter Mato Nanji. The group began their career as a Native American family raised on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota. From their earliest performances, Nanji’s fiery guitar playing was widely recognized and he has been compared to Carlos Santana and Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Their first single, “Now That You’re Gone,” was released in 1998.
They have opened for artists such as B.B. King and Bob Dylan.
NAMA, founded in 1998, is the country’s leading membership-based association consisting of music industry professionals directly involved in the recording and distribution of traditional and contemporary Native American music. Redbone and Johnson will be inducted into the NAMA Hall of Fame during an awards ceremony in New York in October.
Tickets for the concert are $10, $25 and $40 and can be purchased at Ticketmaster outlets.
