If you want a very short bit of a tune played by a real old-time canaller (on a button box), you can hear Evamay Wilkins - as recorded by Craig Williams - play an intro to her own canal story here:

http://eriecanalway.org/v2/videogallery/canal-stories/

The site is behaving badly this afternoon, but doesn't always. And "Sitting on the Potty" is a classic, funny bootlegging tale. If you're at all interested in New York State's canals, you need to know this site anyway.

For those of you from far away, the NYS canal system is more than the Erie Canal, and always has been. The Hudson-Champlain Canal, on which Evamay grew up, was completed two years prior to the Erie. The two canals connect at Waterford, NY.