Pat & Lolly Vegas - At The Haunted House (Reissue) (1966/2006)

Pat & Lolly Vegas are best known as the leaders of Redbone, the pioneering Native American rock band that scored a major hit in 1974 with "Come and Get Your Love," but they had been playing music since the late '50s as members of Jimmy Clanton's road band. In the mid-'60s, they had a regular gig at a briefly popular Hollywood nightspot called the Haunted House, and this album was presumably cut with the hopes of turning the Vegas brothers into the Native Peoples' answer to Johnny Rivers. Produced by Leon Russell and Snuff Garrett, Pat & Lolly Vegas at the Haunted House sure doesn't sound like it was recorded live (there's no audible crowd noise or stage patter), but it does confirm that they were already a great, no-nonsense rock & roll band. The set is divided half and half between covers and originals, with Pat and Lolly delivering tough, soulful vocals throughout and putting enough of their own personality into "In the Midnight Hour," "High Blood Pressure," and "Baby, I Need Your Loving" that their versions can stand tall besides the originals. Even better are their own tunes, with Pat & Lolly rocking proud on "Keep Me Up Tight," "Walk On (Right Out of My Life)," and "Let's Get It On" (not the later Marvin Gaye tune), which merge a rocker's swing with a soul man's passion and deliver the goods on both counts. Pat & Lolly Vegas at the Haunted House is 30 minutes of solid fun with a killer dance groove, and suggests that a compilation of the brothers' early independent singles is in order.