Also recorded by Bessie Smith, this is her version from my files, haven't transcribed the Leadbelly version separately.

BACK WATER BLUES (Bessie Smith) When it rained five days and the skies turned dark as night (x2) There was trouble taking place in the lowlands at night I woke up this morning, wouldn't even get out of my door (x2) Enough trouble to make poor girl wonder where she gonna go They rowed a little boat about five miles 'cross the farm (x2) I packed up all my clothing, throwed it in and they rowed me along It thundered and lightened and the wind began to blow (x2) There was a thousand women, didn't have no place to go I went out to the lonesome, high old lonesome hill (x2) I looked down on the old house where I used to live Backwater blues have caused me to pack up my things and go (x2) 'Cause my house fell down and I can't live there no more Mmmm I can't live there no more (x2) And there ain't no place for a poor old girl to go

When the Louisiana levees broke in the ?1930s and the poor camped on the levees, armed sheriff's deputies stopped them leaving to seek work further North so they'd be forced to continue to work for the cotton owners when the floods receded. Of course, the Bush govt. response to the recent N.Orleans flooding was much more sympathetic (?)
RtS