In reply to Catfeet (5 years ago), the Jerry Epstein - George Ward - Frank Warner song above is to a very different tune than "The E-ri-e Was A-Rising".

Guest's question is interesting. There are no DT/Forum search results for phrases from the chorus. I don't find anything comparable in William Hullfish's The Canaller's Songbook (1984, The American Canal and Transportation Center, York, PA). (The book is still available from The National Canal Museum store among other museum stores, and Hullfish is still at SUNY Brockport.)

Back to the first question, Hullfish says that "Buffalo to Troy" is

A vaudeville song sung by Johnny Bartley at the "Alhambra Varieties" on Commercial Street, Buffalo, New York, in the 1880's.

His version is Frank Warner's, too. In the Preface he says, "... many of the songs in this book were probably not sung by canallers, but by entertainers of the day in minstrel and vaudeville shows (e.g., ...Buffalo to Troy)."

~ Becky in Tucson