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FOLKLIFE ASSOCIATION

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SPRING HILL UNION PRIMITIVE BAPTIST ASSOCIATION
"WE SHALL SLEEP BUT NOT FOREVER"

MUSICS OF ALABAMA:
A COMPILATION

Elders T.E. Peterson and James Rowe Sing From Lloyd's Hymn Book During Church Service

Primitive Baptist Footwash Service at Mt. Hebrew Church in Notasulga, Alabama July 20, 1997

Mount Hebrew Primitive Baptist Church belongs to the Spring Hill Union Association founded in 1892. Its five churches are in the vicinity of Titus, Tuskegee, Notasulga, and Camp Hill, Alabama. The style in which the hymns are sung by this association is a unique and beautiful. Many of their songs are first lined out by the congregation and sung line by line. This is not the case for this example which is sung in regular verse form. The Spring Hill Union congregation is featured using the lined style in the newly-released Alabama Folklife Association publication, Benjamin Lloyd's Hymn Book: A Primitive Baptist Song Tradition, Joyce Cauthen editor.

Listen to example of Elder T. E. Peterson Preaching

Mt. Hebrew Primitive Baptist Church

."We Shall Sleep But Not Forever" Hymn #688 8s from Benjamin Lloyd's The Primitive Hymns, Spiritual Songs, and Sacred Poems, Sung by the congregation of Mt. Hebrew Primitive Baptist Church, Notasulga, Alabama, July 20, 1997. Recorded and digitally mastered by Steve Grauberger at the Alabama Center for Traditional Culture

Lloyd Hymn #688 8s and 7s.

We shall sleep, but not forever.

We shall sleep, but not forever,
There will be a glorious dawn;
We shall meet to part, no never,
On the resurrection morn
From the deepest caves of ocean,
From the desert and the plain,
From the valley and the mountain,
Countless throngs shall rise again.

REFRAIN.

We shall sleep, but not forever,
There will be a glorious dawn;
We shall meet to part, no never,
On the resurrection morn;

When we see a precious blossom,
That we tended with such care,
Rudely taken from our bosom;
How our aching hearts despair!
Round its little grave we linger,
Till the setting sun is low,
Feeling all our hopes are perished,
With the flower we cherished so.

We shall sleep, but not forever,
In the lone and silent grave
Bless'd be the Lord that taketh,
Bless'd be the Lord that gave;
In the bright eternal city
Death can never, never come!
In his own good time he'll call us,

Singers from this congregation are also featured on Benjamin Lloyd’s Hymn Book: A Primitive Baptist Song Tradition, a book of essays with a CD recording documenting the history and current use of an historic hymn book.

Click for More Spring Hill Association Pictures

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