"Natural Blues" was one of several songs on Play produced by Moby based on samples obtained from albums of American folk music originally compiled by field collector Alan Lomax.

"Natural Blues" was produced by Moby for his fifth studio album Play, and contains samples from "Trouble So Hard" by American folk singer Vera Hall.

[3][4] "Natural Blues", described by Moby as a "quite ethereal and mournful" song, is built around loops of Hall's vocals from the original recording.

[1] The Daily Vault's Benjamin Ray described the song as "a better example of the blues lyrics-meets-electronic pastiche, with a quietly insistent beat that slowly builds up to a climax of keyboards and voices.

"[9] Vickie Ilmer from Star Tribune called it "a hymnlike introspective discourse questioning hard times and retaining spirituality".

[14] He took the inspiration for the video's concept directly from a nightmare in which he found himself elderly, unable to move, left in a wheelchair in the hallway of a nursing facility with other senior citizens.

The track, which was released as a single a month in advance of the album, featured lead vocals by Gregory Porter and Amythyst Kiah.