This May Be Your Last Time

DESCRIPTION: "This may be your last time (x3), May be your last time, I don't know." The singer travels about, observes various people and their misdeeds, and warns against the dangers of sin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Jaybird Coleman)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 70-71, "(This May Be Your Last Time)" (1 text); pp. 229-230, "This May Be Your Last Time" (1 tune, partial text)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, pp. 166-167, "May Be the Last Time I Don't Know" (1 text)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 288-289, "Een Dat' Low Lan'" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 336, "(This May Be Your Last Time)" (1 text)
Roud #10965
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson, "This May Be Your Last Time" (on NFMAla4)
Jaybird Coleman, "May Be My Last Time, I Don't Know" (Gennett, unissued; rec. 1927)
Venus McIver, Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "This May Be Our Last Time" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
NOTES [78 words]: The verse in Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang is "Come down (Ezekiel/Jacob/Moses/sinner/mourner) come down, It may be the last time, Ever you hear my voice again In that low land"; the chorus is "In that low land (x2) Never hear my voice again, In that low land"
The text of McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts is a recognition that we may not sing together, pray together, or be together again.
McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts is a "ring shout" song. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CNFM070B

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