"I Had Five Long Years" sung by James Russell (Lead) & gang. From Prison Worksongs-Recorded at Angola (La.) on Arhoolie 1959 by Dr Harry Oster (originally issued as Folklyric). It's been reissued as a CD by Arhoolie Productions.
Just looking at both the CD & the LP, the CD has 5 extra cuts not originally on the LP.

I Had Five Long Years

Oh I had five long years, one time (2x)
But I wrote, oh Lord, my five years down.

Chorus: Make a long time man feel bad (2x)
When he can't get a letter home, oh, get a letter from home.

Oh there must, oh, be a wreck on the road (2x)
'Cause I can't, oh, get a letter from home

Chorus

Roberta, oh let yo' hair hang low (2x)
Just as long buddy as my right arm.

Chorus

Oster has this as "a slow-drag work song, used for hoeing (no not whoring) or cane cutting". He goes on to say it's a variant of "Makes A Longe Time Man Feel Bad".

I just listened to the above version ("I Had Five Long Years") & then 2 other versions of "Makes A Longe Time Man Feel Bad". The 1st song here "I Had Five Long Years" is a slow song compared to the others & sounds by the beat, pace & rhythm to be used here as a cane-cutting song. Russell sings it almost as a field holler which would be in the cane-cutting style rather than hoeing. The 2 versions of "Makes A Longe Time Man Feel Bad" is at a much quicker tempo not at all like a field holler, these are both used as axe songs, much crisper & cleaner (& you hear the axes working). One version is from the Library of Congress-Archive of Folk Culture, "Negro Work Songs & Calls" reissued on Rounder. This version is the quicker of the 2 & is used as a double-cut axe song.
This is sung by Kelly Pace (Lead) & gang at Cummins State Farm, Gould, Ark, 1934. The 2nd version is from the Lomax collection Prison Songs vol. 1 Murderous Home sung by "22" (Lead) & axe group at Mississippi State, Parchman Farm 1947-48 (located on the Yazoo Delta). This is also used as a double axe song though a bit slower than the former. In the sleeve notes Lomax says that this is an old Railroad song by its references to the 'Gulf & Ship Island R.R. which was built in 1887 & absorbed by the Illinois Central System in 1925.

The difference between an axe song & a double axe song is the way the men are grouped around a standing tree (logging would be cutting a felled tree). Let's use a compass, one man stands at N, S, E & West they all swing the axe into the tree from the same direction, all cutting into the tree like using a bat at the same time. On the double-axe songs there are 8 men standing at the same 4 points of the compass. At each point of the compass, the now 2 men standing there stand back to back still facing the tree. Let's say that the original 4 men are swinging their axes into the tree from the right, they all swing in at the same time, & to the song, while the 4 new men are bringing their axes back & will swing again in from the left when the other 4 are bringing their axes back. This is a faster cutting method & more recent method than the other way but it's far more dangerous & a newbie wouldn't be allowed to cut with a gang of this type right away. The danger comes while the axe swings back, if the timing's off the axe may hit the partners neck, hands, shoulder, etc. 5 yrs. of this kind of traumatic bonding might make one really watch their buddy's back.

Barry