Indian-inspired music – Curious as a Cathy

Welcome to Monday’s Mewsic Moves Me on Sunday!

My paternal grandma said that her ancestors have some Blackfoot Indian connections. How much I can’t tell you that and I wish I knew but alas I do not. My maternal grandpa’s stepmother was half Cherokee. I’d say the odds are high that another male family member from the past probably took for him an Indian bride. Somewhere along my family roots, I bet a nickel some American Indian blood courses through my veins. There probably isn’t a great deal but still, I believe it’s there.

This month’s honorary co-hostess, CK from Stunning Keisha offers this week’s theme for Native American Heritage Month asking us to, ‘share songs inspired by, performed by or about Native Americans’.

Snapped this picture during the summer on one of our outings in western North Carolina

Let me start off with a respectful nod to the native Cherokee people living in my area with Paul Revere & the Raiders 1971 #1 hit song, Indian Reservation.

Incidentally, this is the only number one hit the American rock band had in their career. A tidbit to nibble on according to Songfacts…

The song is about the plight of the Cherokee Indians, who in 1791 were displaced from their home in Georgia to a reservation in Oklahoma. Raiders frontman Mark Lindsay, whose ancestry was part Indian, thought that this would be a good song to record.

I wondered if the band had anything to do with Indians at all and it appears Lindsay did. So, cool to know!

The songwriter, John D. Loudermilk, of Indian Reservation also wrote another song title Half Breed (not the Cher song) for Marvin Rainwater. As you probably figured it tells the story about a young man whose dad is white and mother is Indian. The song reached #66 in 1959.

I never got why anyone was prejudice because of a purrson’s skin color but this is a story as old as time and I don’t reckon it’ll change as long as the world stands. It can’t because humans are flawed.

To pay honor of the possible Blackfoot Indian ancestors I might have, I found a late 60s southern rock originally formed by Jakson Spires (Cheyenne & Cherokee), Richie Medlocke (Lakota Sioux & Blackfoot) and Greg ‘Two Wolf’ Walker (Muskogee Creek a tribe in Oklahoma) listed among in the Spinditty online article, 11 Best Native American Rock Bands. Blackfoot’s first studio album released in 1975, No Reservation and ‘Railroad Man’ was their first single but it wasn’t until 1979 the band hit the US charts with Highway Song #26 and Train, Train #38. This is totally new to me but found that I liked both of these songs, especially Highway Song.

Link Wray is a Shawnee Indian to introduce the power chord to the rock community. His song, Rumble has nothing to do with Indians at all but a street fight. Could it be a modern twist of Cowboys and Indians, I dunno?

Stevie Salas is a proud Apache guitarist to play with Rod Stewart Out of Order tour, George Clinton (R&B Skeletons in the Closet Captial Records ), Bootsy Collins (What’s Bootsy Doin’ Columbia Records), and Eddie Money (Nothing to Loose Columbia Records) to name a few that aren’t featured. With more than three decades of mewsic history and 20+ studio albums, Salas has established himself in the industry. At Salas’ website, you’ll find a list of his albums but while on YT I found The Soulblasters of the Universe.

Redbone is the most famous Indian band that I remember from my youth formed by two Vegas brothers, Candido “Lolly” Vasquez-Vegas (guitarist, vocals) and Patrick Vasquez-Vegas (bass and vocals) of Yaqui, Shoshone and Mexican heritage. Their first single hit is Witch Queen of New Orleans but my purrsonal favorite and their biggest hit song is, Come and Get Your Love. A new mewsic discovery I made is this song by Redbone, “Wovoka”.

Navajo Indians were vital during WWII, serving our country in a way that stumped the enemy using their language as code talkers behind the enemy line, an oral military code that still remains unbroken. The 2002 film, Windtalkers is a recount of this story of their bravery. The Navajo code talkers earned respect by from their brothers in arms and eventually awarded Congressional Gold Metals many years later. From the Windtalkers soundtrack, Calling To The Wind.

I’m gonna leave you with three-hours of ambient flute mewsic for your enjoyment and if you don’t have time, then you may want to bookmark this to listen to later.

Please read…this is a mewsic linky party, which means all participates are sharing songs that one can listen to from YouTube or Vimeo and a not a post about mewsic or mewsicians. Failure to meet this basic guideline puts your URL in danger of being removed or labeled – NO MUSIC.

It’s now time to join the 4M dance party!

ATTENTION!!! Would you like to be an honorary co-host? If so, shoot me an email or leave me a comment saying ‘YES, sign me up!’ and I’ll secure the next available month for you then send you the details.

Thank you to every American veteran who served to protect this country keeping her people safe and preserving our way of life. This song is For You (Keith Urban from the movie Act of Valor)!

Thanks for being apart of things today. Have a beautiful Sunday as you keep those tunes playing and your body swaying. I’ll be boogieing over to see you soon. X💋X💋, Cathy