Biography
If your notion of exceptional blues centers on fiercely overdriven guitar laced with raw aggression and barely contained menace, Auburn Hare—better known as Pat Hare—fits the bill perfectly. His given name, bestowed at birth, struck even dedicated chroniclers as implausibly colorful. Throughout the Memphis scene of the 1950s he built a reputation as an elite instrumentalist whose searing tone was matched only by Willie Johnson, the guitarist behind Howlin’ Wolf. His earliest documented appearance came in 1953, when he arrived at Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service to accompany James Cotton on the latter’s first Sun session. The two resulting sides—“Cotton Crop Blues” and “Hold Me in Your Arms”—displayed Hare’s slashing, heavily saturated guitar, a sound that, decades later, seems to forecast the gritty distortion later embraced by rock players. At the time, however, he produced the effect simply by working his fingers across the strings while pushing the volume control of his compact Sears & Roebuck amplifier to its limit.
After supporting Cotton and various other artists on the local circuit, Hare relocated to Chicago and, by the closing years of the decade, had become a steady member of Muddy Waters’ group, contributing to the landmark Live at Newport, 1960 album. Colleagues recalled him as reserved and reflective while sober, yet alcohol reversed that demeanor entirely. In the 1960s he followed fellow Waters alumnus Mojo Bruford to Minneapolis, where a fatal domestic incident led to Hare’s murder conviction and lifelong imprisonment. Adding a final twist to his story, one of the unissued masters he recorded for Sun was an original titled “I’m Gonna Murder My Baby.”
After supporting Cotton and various other artists on the local circuit, Hare relocated to Chicago and, by the closing years of the decade, had become a steady member of Muddy Waters’ group, contributing to the landmark Live at Newport, 1960 album. Colleagues recalled him as reserved and reflective while sober, yet alcohol reversed that demeanor entirely. In the 1960s he followed fellow Waters alumnus Mojo Bruford to Minneapolis, where a fatal domestic incident led to Hare’s murder conviction and lifelong imprisonment. Adding a final twist to his story, one of the unissued masters he recorded for Sun was an original titled “I’m Gonna Murder My Baby.”