George,

I don't really perform the song - at least not yet - but I do have it in a folder, and have been meaning to learn it. I have a copy of some of Ellen Stekert's field recordings of Ezra "Fuzzy" Barhight, and his melody would indeed be the one I would use. There's an interesting connection there too - Barhight learned the song from the Irish lumbermen & farmers he worked with along the NY/PA border. The area around where he farmed in the summertime in southern Allegany Co. (NY) was initially settled by some Irish laborers who came down there to build the railroad. Lo and behold, these were the same men who had helped enlargen the Erie Canal in the 1830's & 1840's before going down to Allegany Co. for railroad work. So...I like to fantasize that the melody that Barhight learned and sang to Stekert was directly related to the strain sung on the old E-RI-E.