Vera Hall
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Adell Hall Ward, better known as Vera Hall (April 6, 1902 – January 29, 1964) was an American
folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...
singer, born in Livingston, Alabama. Best known for her 1937 song "Trouble So Hard", she was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 2005.


Biography

Hall was born at Payneville, Sumter County, Alabama, near
Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...
, and sang her entire life. Her mother Zully Hall, a former
slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
, and father Agnes Efron, taught her songs such as "I Got the Home", "In the Rock" and "When I'm Standing Wondering, Lord, Show Me the Way". Hall married Nash Riddle, a coal miner, in 1917 and gave birth to their daughter, Minnie Ada. Riddle was killed in 1920. In the late 1930s, Hall's singing gained national exposure.
John Avery Lomax John Avery Lomax (September 23, 1867 – January 26, 1948) was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist, and a folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk music. He was the father of Alan Lomax, John Lomax Jr. and Bess ...
, ethnomusicologist, met Hall in the 1930s and recorded her for the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
. Lomax wrote that she had the loveliest voice he had ever recorded. The
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...
played Hall's recording of "Another Man Done Gone" in 1943 as a sample of
American folk music The term American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as ''traditional music'', ''traditional folk music'', ''contemporary folk music'', ''vernacular music,'' or ''roots music''. Many traditional songs have been sung ...
. Earlier, The Library of Congress played the song in commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the
Emancipation Proclamation The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the Civil War. The Proclamation changed the legal sta ...
in 1937. In 1945, Hall recorded with Byron Arnold. In 1984, the recordings were released as a collection of folk songs entitled ''Cornbread Crumbled in Gravy''. According to recording artist and writer Stephen Wade, "'Another Man Done Gone' became Vera Hall's most celebrated performance. Carl Sandburg recalled listening to it more than a dozen consecutive times during a January 1944 visit to Lomax's Dallas home...." In 1948, with the help of Alan Lomax, Hall traveled to New York and performed on May 15 at the American Music Festival at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. During the course of this trip, Lomax interviewed Hall on several occasions, later stating "Her singing is like a deep-voiced shepherds flute, mellow and pure in tone, yet always with hints of the lips and the pleasure-loving flesh...The sound comes from deep within her when she sings, from a source of gold and light, otherwise hidden, and falls directly upon your ear like sunlight. It is a liquid, full
contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typica ...
, rich in low overtones; but it can leap directly into falsetto and play there as effortlessly as a bird in the wind." Hall died in January 1964 in
Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population o ...
. Today, her work still garners attention. Prized by scholars and folk song enthusiasts, Hall's recordings include examples of early blues and folk songs that are found nowhere else.


Legacy

Lomax's son,
Alan Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *A ...
, also championed Vera Hall, bringing her to New York for a performance at Columbia University in 1948 and assembling ''Rainbow Sign'', a book based on Hall's life and stories.
Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...
's 2000 single ''
Natural Blues "Natural Blues" is a song by American electronic musician Moby. It was released on March 6, 2000, as the fifth single from his fifth studio album, '' Play'' (1999). The song is built around vocals sampled from "Trouble So Hard" by American folk ...
'' is essentially an extended remix of the song ''Trouble So Hard'' recorded by Hall in 1937. A historical marker in Hall's honor was dedicated on April 21, 2007 in Livingston. Hall's 1959 rendition of " O, Death" was featured in episode three of the first season of ''
Altered Carbon ''Altered Carbon'' is a 2002 cyberpunk novel by the English writer Richard K. Morgan. Set in a future in which interstellar travel and relative immortality is facilitated by transferring consciousnesses between bodies ("sleeves"), it follows t ...
'', a
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
original.


References


Further reading

*
Alabama Women's Hall of Fame

Encyclopedia of Alabama
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Vera 1902 births 1964 deaths People from Livingston, Alabama American folk singers Gospel blues musicians 20th-century American singers