Vera Hall

Adell Hall Ward, known as Vera Hall, (born in Payneville, Alabama in 1902, died in 1964) was an American folk singer. She grew up near Livingston, Alabama. In Livingston in 1937, Hall met John Avery Lomax, an ethnomusicologist who recorded American folk music. Lomax recorded Hall singing numerous songs that were put into the United States Library of Congress for preservation. Lomax's son, Alan, 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. Hall's record, "Another Man Done Gone," was played on the BBC in 1943 as a highlight to American folk music. Also, "Another Man Gone" was played by Congress to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. She is famous for being sampled by Moby on his hit single, "Natural Blues", the sample was taken from the song "Trouble so Hard". A historical marker in her honor was dedicated on 21 April 2007 in Livingston Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.