Greetings, GUEST dunhariandja

Unfortunately I don't know how to do choral arrangements. But as an African American I grew up singing this song. However, the words we sang were not the same as all of the lyrics presented above.

Since I was curious to see if there were other versions on this song on the Internet, I did a google search and basically found the same verses as shown here with one additional verse that my church also didn't sing.

Instead of singing "All around me it looked so shine/I asked my Lord if all was mine", we sang " If you don't believe I've been redeemed/just follow me down to Jordan stream".

I found this other verse on http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/every_time_i_feel_the_spirit2.htm
Ain't but one train runs dis track
It runs to Heaven an' runs right back
Saint Peter waitin' at de gate
Says, "Come on sinner, don't be late".

Instead of singing this, sometimes we sang "I went to the valley but I didn't go to stay/my soul got happy and I stayed all day".

Also my church did not add a "He" to the line "Upon the mountain my Lord spoke.." And sometimes instead of saying "Oh everytime I feel the spirit", people would sing "Yes, everytime..etc".

All of this to say that I encourage you to not be restrained by the words as presented here or anywhere. Traditionally, spirituals are not supposed to be sung the same way each time. Rigid adherance to any choruses {African Americans'term for "refrain"} or verses of spirituals is not in the true spirit of the genre.

While this is true, school and church taught us that there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. With regard to music, it's a hard lesson to unlearn and I'm still trying to do so.

Peace,
Azizi