#pat hare

Composed by Auburn Hare

Auburn "Pat" Hare:Vocals & Guitar

Billy "Red" Love:Piano

Israel Franklin:Drums

Pat Hare I'm Gonna Murder My Baby (1954)

Composed by Auburn Hare 

 Auburn "Pat" Hare:Vocals & Guitar  Billy "Red" Love:Piano  Israel Franklin:Drums 

Muddy Waters - “Got My Mojo Workin' Parts 1 & 2″, Live At the Newport Jazz Festival (1960) 

 This is one of my all-time favorite things. When he hikes his pant leg up before doing the pelvic thrusts during the last chorus, just beautiful.

 This was a rather interesting Newport festival as the day prior, some 300 drunken rowdies caused an actual goddamn riot requiring tear gas, water hoses and eventually the National Guard. This wasn’t as unusual as you might think, as a 1956 Duke Ellington set caused major unrest. Good music will do that.

 Anyhow, the town council wanted to cancel the next day but the promoter talked them out of it. Muddy and his boys actually drove into the festival during the riot. They were going to skedaddle until James Cotton noticed John Lee Hooker just standing there with a guitar across his back, no case and no luggage. They rescued Mr. Hooker, performed the next day and the rest is history.

 “Got My Mojo Workin’” (written by Preston Foster) was actually first recorded by R&B and gospel singer Ann Cole in 1956. Muddy picked up the song from her when she opened for him during a tour of the South. If you know anything about a mojo bag or hand, the lyrics do make more sense from a female perspective. A guy would probably use a conjure root or St. John The Conqueror root. Nobody probably cares about this but me, though.

 The set was released as Live At Newport on Chess and is still one of the best blues albums, much less live blues albums, of all time. Hell, I consider it one of the best all-around live albums and if I had to do the “desert island 5″, this would probably be one of them. The cover had a picture of Muddy with a semi-acoustic guitar that actually belonged to Hooker, as he was playing a Fender Telecaster.

 Along with Cotton and the aforementioned Pat Hare on guitar, Muddy’s longtime piano man Otis Spann is in the house. He was often called Muddy’s half-brother, but I’m pretty sure that’s not so. Drummer Francis Clay and bassist Andrew Stephens (who was with Muddy for years) round out the band.