The levee song the Johnson Girls sing was learned from Jeff Warner and Jeff Davis. It was collected by Herbert Halpert in 1`939 from Josephine Douglas in the Women's Section of the notorious Parchman Prison Farm in Mississippi. You can hear the original at the Library of Congress Archive of Folk Culture, and you might even find it on American Memory.
    Bob -- the tune is clearly related to "Working on the Railroad." The Double Decker String Band also does this "Sittin' By the River on the Levee" song, with some minor variations, although I understand they also learned it from Halpert's Parchman recording,
    Sandy