Natural Blues

"Natural Blues" samples a 1937 recording by American folklorist Alan Lomax of Vera Hall's "Trouble So Hard." Vera Hall was a 1930s country blues singer and her recorded output was largely preserved via field recordings made by Lomax. Moby first came across this song on the Lomax collection Alabama: From Lullabies to Blues.

This was released as the fifth single from Play, the album that made Moby an unlikely international star.

Moby recalled to Rolling Stone: "It almost didn't make it on the record. I had some friends over and I was playing them songs off the record and they thought it was too weird. I couldn't get a good mix of it. This guy in England, 1 Giant Leap, he mixed that song and did a really great job so I was able to include it on the record."