“Trouble So Hard”: Singing of Slavery and Freedom

Spirituals and work songs, rooted in both the slavery era and the West African societies from which most African-American slaves were originally taken, provided cultural sustenance to African Americans in the midst of intense racial oppression. Folklorists first began collecting traditional southern music in the late-19th century. In the 1920s and 1930s, John Lomax (and other members of his family) recorded southern musicians (African-American, white, and Mexican-American) for the Library of Congress. “Trouble So Hard,” sung by Dock Reed, Henry Reed, and Vera Hall in Livingston, Alabama, in 1937, was reminiscent in style of the slavery era, when the congregation sang without hymnbooks or musical accompaniment. The style of singing—the lead singer’s call and the congregation’s increasingly loud and forceful response—had its roots in African religious practice.

Chorus:

O Lord, trouble so hard. (2)

Yes, indeed, my trouble is hard. (2)

O Lord, trouble so hard. (2)

Don’t nobody know my troubles but God. (2)

Yes, indeed, my trouble’s so hard. (2)

O Lord, trouble so hard. (2)

l. Wait and let me tell you what the sister will do:

‘Fo’ your face, she have a love for you,

'Hind your back, scandalize your name,

Jest the same you have to bear the blame.

(Chorus)

2. Wait and let me tell you what your brother will do:

‘Fo’ your face, have a love for you,

'Hind your back, scandalize your name,

Jest the same you have to bear the blame.

O Lord, trouble so hard. (2)

Source: Afro-American Spirituals, Work Songs, and Ballads, ed. Alan Lomax (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress Archive of Folk Song, AFS L3). Sung by Dock and Henry Reed and Vera Hall at Livingston, Alabama, 1937. Recorded by John A, and Ruby T. Lomax and Ruby Pickens Tartt.

See Also:"It's a long John": Traditional African-American Work Songs
"Run Old Jeremiah": Echoes of the Ring Shout