This week's C&O stems from the concert that I went to earlier this week with Paolo Nutini. During his set, he said that he had a cover of a song by Vera Hall, which I wrote down as Trouble So High, and when I went off to look up the lyrics, I found that it was also a song by Moby. A little research later and I found that the song was originally Hall's and called Trouble So Hard, an American folk singer from Alabama. In 2000, Moby sampled the song for the song Natural Blues, which was on the album Play.
Since then, Paolo Nutini has picked up the song, crediting Hall in concerts, rather than Moby, although it's likely that more audiences will recognize the song as Moby's.
Hall's original is a stark, haunting song that feels right down to the southern - hymnal roots fantastically. It's a beautiful song on it's own. Moby has taken the song and sped it up a little with a faster drum track and piano section, adding a bit of richness to the song, although I think that it looses it's original flavor. It's still not a bad song though. Finally, Paolo Nutini has taken the song and given it an almost Reggae sound with some pretty cool guitar work to go along with it.
Trouble So Hard - Vera Hall
Natural Blues - Moby
Trouble So Hard - Paolo Nutini
