This week’s Tune of the Week is Josie Girl, also known as Josie-O. Most of us associate Josie-O with Art Stamper. In 2010 Adam Hurt recorded it on a gourd banjo in his Earth Tones CD. After enjoying and working on those two versions I recently discovered Tennessee fiddler Charlie Acuff’ Josie Girl, learned from his grandfather, Charlie Boyd Acuff, and concluded it was an older resource.
Charlie Acuff was from Alcoa, Tennessee and died at age 93 in 2013. He was a left-handed fiddler. There’s a DVD available to hear him in concert: Charlie Acuff, East Tennessee Fiddler. He’s cousin to Roy Acuff and states that all the Acuffs are musical, but only Roy made any money from it! Charlie worked in an aluminum plant for 40 years, but was a dedicated fiddler, too.
Charlie sang these lyrics for Josie Girl:
Where’s that girl, where’s she gone?
Where’s that girl with the josie on?
She stole my heart, where’d she go?
Where’s that girl with the josie-o?
He first explained that a josie is a long overcoat with a cape. I looked up josie and learned its multiple meanings: a girl’s or boy’s nickname (as in the tune Jim-Along Josie), an overcoat originally called a joseph worn by a lady in the 1800’s, a term for underclothes worn by slaves, and a dance. Here’s an interesting blog: suggestions for the term josie.
I found yet more musical connections for Josie Girl after a friend, Linda Gunderson, gave me a keepsake given her during a jam with Charlie Acuff. It’s a type-written, alphabetized list of Mr. Acuff’s repertoire which left out Josie Girl until the very end -- surprising because he performed it often. At the bottom of the list, hand-written in beautiful calligraphy it says “Josie Girl or The Girl with the Blue Dress On, from Charlie Acuff from his grandfather.” It’s followed by musical notation, but my copy gets cut off right there (see photo below).
John Hartford recorded The Girl with the Blue Dress On, mentioning Charlie Acuff and Ed Haley as also having played it. John sourced his version to Samuel Bayard, No. 246 where it was said to be a “cousin” to Shane O’Neill’s March. When I compare Josie Girl with The Girl with the Blue Dress On, I hear melodic differences. I conclude they’re related, but not at all identical. You can listen to John Hartford on Wild Hog in the Red Brush, Track 7. Another title elsewhere is “Who’s Been Here Since I’ve Been Gone?”
Art Stamper said this about Josie-O: “I think my version here is like Uncle Charlie Acuff’s. I associate myself with him a lot. He plays that version almost like I play it. So I got a lot of the feeling from his fiddling, which I dearly love. He’s a good guy.”
I think Adam Hurt’s Earth Tones CD is one of the best clawhammer CDs out there. He plays Josie-O in SRB (Sandy River Belle) tuning – fDGCD on Track 4. Listen to it below and you can also check out the tab I’ve included.
Adam kindly gave me permission to post a tabbed version of his Josie-O. When I learned this tune from him in our fourth Skype lesson he also taught me the Galax lick, which appears in the B part. Learning it has opened up a world of options when I arrange fiddle tunes (though it took me a few lessons to get it down). It was also the fourth tune he taught me using SRB (Sandy River Belle) tuning (and called by other names) – fDGCD – which also has opened up a world of options for arranging fiddle tunes, especially in the key of G, and creating my own compositions.
Hope you give Josie Girl or Josie-O a try and share here.
Fantastic pick! I thought I'd share my favorite youtube band version - Joseph Decomiso and the Bucking Mules, filmed at Clifftop in 2013 (they also sing at random)
A Good choice, simple but hard to get out of your head.
And for inadvertently answering a question that's been bugging me namely "what is SRB tuning?". Thank you.
I see that Linda Gunderson is a friend of yours. I met her down at the Appalachian Farm Museum some years back when she was playing with "Cuzzin Ray". I got to pick a couple of tunes with her too while Ray took a break. Is Linda still in
Glad you like the tune. Jeff, that Clifftop jam is super -- maybe one day I'll be there, too. I hope you post your old G version. I arranged one in old Cumberland Gap tuning, another of Adam's "extra credit assignments;" I'll post the tab. Jimmy, Linda moved but gave me a Charlie Acuff list (photo below) with the hand-written tune title for Josie-O at the bottom. Rick H, thanks, and GrizClaw Rick, doing a TOTW is fun and the learning part never ceases....
Thanks so much, Ken. It makes sense to play it out of standard G. When the two versions --Josie -O and Josie Girl -- are compared you see that Art Stamper and Adam begin with different parts from Charlie Acuff, who begins and ends his version with the same part. It seems to have been Charlie's signature tune and he made it his own. When the Clifftop jam, above link, sang the words it was just like Charlie would sing. Though Art Stamper is associated with the tune, Charlie's influence is definitely there.
I may try John Hartford's Girl With the Blue Dress On, sited to Samuel Bayard's book Dance to the Fiddle and March to the Fife, #246. In John's version (linked at the top) you hear his typically playful and unique style of fiddling. John sings some lyrics, too. Here's an arrangement, but I have yet to record.
For good or bad I play all of my G tunes out of standard tuning. I'm certain it doesn't always lay out best or sound the most interesting. However, my fiddle friends have always seemed uninterested in waiting for a banjo to change tunings and they frequently don't announce what tune is next. I guess nobody explained to them that it's all about the banjo.
As I was listening I thought "I've heard that," and sure enough. Garry Harrison played it under the name Sugar in My Coffee from Effingham, IL fiddler "Pappy" Taylor. Here is a recording (done with my little voice recorder) at an Illinois Fiddle Tunes workshop on November 1, 2008. This is a two-part version.
I expect that someone has already spread the news that Dear Old Illinois is back in print, along with the 3-CD set, and will be on sale on CDbaby in July.
That's good news about Dear Old Illinois. Sugar in My Coffee is very similar to two parts of Josie Girl/Josie-O. There's just one note that goes higher and gives it a distinctive sound.
I agree with you, Ken, about the practical usage of playing out of open G when playing with a fiddler and not having to re-tune. Using a capo on the second fret you can play nearly half of their repertoire out of that tuning. The advantages of using other banjo tunings are the relative ease of playing certain tunes and the opportunity to express the tune's beauty, especially for the solo banjo player. It's also interesting to compare one tune played in different tunings. We've already mentioned four so far!
Ken, you've shared lots of tabs on the TOTW. I find them skillfully arranged and, personally, I like playing out of open G.
Besides enjoying your music so very much I enjoy your history of the tunes. You make it seem as if you were personal friends with all of the old fiddlers and banjo players. They would sure loved to have you around.
I learned Sugar In My Coffee from the Canotes and Candy Goldman at Walker Creek Music Camp a few years ago. Their take on it seems to emphasize the differences between it and Josie-O. Notably, they go firmly to a C chord in the fourth measure of the A part and then there is the the high A note, that Janet mentions, in the B part. I've included the recordings from the class, my tab of what Candy taught and a transcription of the fiddle part in case anybody is interested.
I just listened to Harvey Taylor's recording from Dear Old Illinois. I assume I can't provide the recording since it will soon be for sale again (and I'm looking forward to getting the book to go with the recordings). But, it seems to match the Garry Harrison and Canotes versions although it's a little harder to hear the chords.
So IMHO, I'd say the recordings of Sugar In My Coffee are different from...but pretty similar to Josie-O. I wouldn't call them one after another at a jam. (Although, we do that sometimes and go back and forth just to see if we can keep from crashing one into the other.)
I always enjoy your postings, Jeff, musical and otherwise. This is as good a time as any to remind newer Old Timers that in OT there is never a single, definitive, "correct" version of any OT tune. Most of our music was passed on by ears, hands, and memories, all very variable with whatever musician. Therefore lots of "versions" exist out there for any tune. Different versions may not even have the same number of measures. I speculate that a lot of crooked tunes are/were due to "that's how I remember it!" I am saying this because when I started out I'd see in print or hear a tune and think that was the way that tune "was supposed to be played" not realizing that I was just seeing/hearing another "version." What I saw or heard was just the way THAT musician played that tune. For instances I still find Ken Pearlman's versions of tunes more complex than is desirable - for me - for jam sessions. Complex banjo playing of tunes often get lost in a jam where a solid, stabilizing rhythm might be more desirable. The real art to me is being able to listen to the fiddler and match your playing to HIS version, a skill I will be working on ad infinitum. Banjered
Thanks, Ken, for the comparison of Josie Girl, Josie-O, and Sugar in My Coffee. Your MP3s are helpful and enjoyable.
And bravo to Jeff's posting of Josio -- an exceptional and unique solo. I'd tend to agree that it's okay to call one Josie Girl vs. Josie-O based on which part is started first. One identifies itself with Charlie Acuff, the other to Art Stamper. I think "Josio" is a good a title as any.
I agree with Tom that old-time aficionados are free to express the tune as they feel and shouldn't get too hung up with the concept of "correctness." Plus there are stylistic differences between how you might play banjo with others vs. solo. My Charlie Acuff arrangement uses his fiddle version as my template. The result is a version that I've heard people describe as "nailing it" -- hearing the fiddle expressed with a different voice. Yet it wouldn't be necessarily what I'd end up playing with a fiddler. As Tom said, "Complex banjo playing of tunes often gets lost in a jam where a solid, stabilizing rhythm might be more desirable. The real art to me is being able to listen to a fiddler and match your playing to HIS version..."
Since much of my clawhammering is done solo, I'm also greatly attracted to the innovative and beautiful playing of Adam Hurt. It captures the fiddler's magical performance, yet is uniquely inspired just for clawhammer.
As this forum is actually called "Playing Styles," it is helpful to articulate stylistic differences.
In the meantime, I'm still looking into the TOTW's relationship to The Girl with the Blue Dress On....
I listened to two versions on Slippery Hill of Girl with the Blue Dress On (by John Summers and Doc White), and heard no resemblance to Josie Girl. However, I do hear it in John Hartford's version, so I'll keep working on it. I listened to one of Hartford's suggested related tunes in O'Neill's Music of Ireland, (#1806, as noted by Samuel Bayard), but heard no likeness...
On the other hand, I looked at the Art Stamper liner notes and found he linked Josie-O to Sugar in the Coffee as played by Missouri fiddler Lyman Enloe (1906 - 1997), though he admitted "it's just a little bit different." Lyman was influenced most by his fiddling father, Elijah "Lige" Enloe. Here's Lyman Enloe:
Perhaps some of you midwestern musicians know about Lyman Enloe and can enlighten me further.
In Marion Thede's The Fiddle Book there are lyrics given to a transcription of Ed Thomas and Dewey County's version of Sugar in My Coffee. Marion explains how rare sugar was and that syrup was used instead.
Go there once and go no more
If they don't give no sugar in my coffee-o
How in the world's the old folk know
That I'll take sugar in my Coffee-o
Sugar's high and sugar's low
But I'll take sugar in my coffee-o
How in the hell's the old folks know
That I'll take sugar in my coffee-o.
After listening to these tunes with other titles than this week's TOTW, I'm thinking Josie Girl/Josie-O stands alone as a unique tune. Sugar in the Coffee appears to have a big enough history to warrant its own TOTW! And remember, two parts of Josie Girl/Josie-O are heard in Cornstalk Fiddle and a Shoestring bow, a prior TOTW.
Janet and Tom - thanks for the compliments! You guys' contributions to these forums are part of what makes the hangout worth visiting!
I think that there are a lot of great ways to enjoy fiddle tunes and I'm glad that multiple viewpoints are supported here - first, there are the traditionalists that really want to capture the exact notes (and hopefully spirit!) of a fiddler's original recording; I've learned a few tunes that way and I really respect the amount of effort that goes into that process. Second are the folks (also like myself) that like to capture what people are continuing to do with these tunes, and maybe even add a flourish or two of their own.
I like that this second approach keeps the songs "alive" and its cool to have your finger on the pulse of what's happening to these tunes in jams - to me, the key is finding a balance between innovation and respect for the source versions. Its definitely possible to veer too far from the original tune but plenty of players out there find this balance quite well.
Sorry to get a little philosophical here, just excited to jump into the old v. new discussion (which is always on my mind when I'm working out a new tune) - the TOTW posts are always a great way to sample different versions of tunes; thanks so much for taking the reins this week Janet!
So funny you're doing the current TOTW when just the other day I asked you a question about a TOTW you did back in 2012. Am I behind or what??? Great write up this week, thanks!
That's nice, Cam. That Galax lick in the B part is the kicker in it that took me several lessons to get. On the EarthTones CD Adam does even more at that spot that I still haven't figured out. It literally awes me.... His arrangement is so clever and original, and, as always, stands as a complete solo performance. I'm going to ask him at our next lesson (this Tuesday) whether there would be a difference in his arrangements if he knew he was arranging a banjo piece to play along with a fiddler. Adam is a fiddler, as well, and would be sensitive about how the banjo accompanies and complements the fiddle. His latest CD, Inside Out, is with Megan Lynch, a very accomplished fiddler, so he must have had this issue on his mind....
Jay, I'm glad that TOTWs have some good use over the years. I look forward to seeing them compiled in a book one day, with accompanying CD! There's a world of information out there from everyone's contributions.
Jeff, I think your innovations in the tune add your personal touch, but definitely stays within the boundaries of the original tune. That style is really the ideal, IMO, though I'm still trying to copy a fiddle. One day I'll get back to just hearing the melody and expressing it with my clawhammer voice. It's really the basic melody I like (plus some good harmony and a few embellishments thrown in)....
Great work Cam (and Janet too!) with your version!
While I've heard Adam say that his inspiration typically comes from fiddlers, he has definitely innovated on this tune by making it a moderate tempo soulful piece for solo performance - this was a trait I didn't know existed in Josio as its usually played as a "barn burner" at most of the jams I attend....and it goes without saying that I absolutely love what he's done here! Though the low-tuned gourd banjo does lend itself to this approach, I've heard him do the same thing with equal success on a standard banjo (for instance his version of Camp Chase, which is not only more soulful than the standard offering, but even switches to the key of D!)
(an aside about his fiddling since you've brought it up) - Adam also led a "playing effectively with an old-time fiddler" class at Midwest banjo camp this year, where he simply brought his fiddle with him, then played duets with everyone in the room....it was defintely the highlight of the entire camp for me (and I'm pretty sure the same was true for everyone else in the room : )
Lyman Enloe was awarded as a National Endowment for the Arts "National Heritage Fellow" in 1995. Here is his bio from that:
Lyman Enloe was born on March 14, 1906, in Cole County, Missouri, on the northern edge of the Ozarks. He grew up in a musical family. His father, Elijah "Lige" Enloe, was a renowned fiddler who played for square dances throughout the region. Lyman got his training playing rhythm guitar for his father, his older half-brother Wade and his Uncle "Pink" Enloe. Occasionally he would get a fiddle bow across his head as a reminder to change chords.
Enloe didn't start playing fiddle until he was 22, and then, he said, "It was kind of a joke. My wife was sick, and I had to stay home from work. My dad had given me a little old fiddle; it was almost full-sized. He had kind of worked it over himself. And I just had it hanging on the wall, never dreamed of ever playing it. I was sitting around the house like that, and all of a sudden I looked at that little old fiddle and told my wife, 'I believe I'll get that thing down, tune it up and learn to play it.' She laughed at me, said, 'That'll be the day,' because I would never quit playing guitar, and I didn't think I would. I did just that and got hooked on the darn thing, and I've been playing fiddle ever since."
By 1930, Enloe was playing on radio programs broadcast from the dome of the state capitol in Jefferson City. Exposure to many of Missouri's top fiddlers, including Tony Gilmore, provided him with a broad repertoire of traditional fiddle tunes of the region and a playing style that has been described as "pure, clean, sweet notes with a bowing arm of rolling molasses."
In the late 1940s, Enloe moved with his wife, Myrtle, and nine children to Kansas City. He worked as a painter and later started his own business. He also fiddled in a popular square dance band. He recalled once playing when 32 sets of four dancers were on the floor. Several of Enloe's children became musicians, and they played in a family band for several years. In 1966, Enloe joined a group called The Down Home Folks. A few years later, they changed the name to the Bluegrass Association, which featured Enloe's daughter Audrey on vocals.
The group backed Enloe on the influential album Fiddle Tunes I Recall. Today, many of the rare tunes he recorded have become part of the fiddle repertoire around the country because this obscure regional recording was distributed nationally by County Records at the suggestion of National Heritage Fellow Kenny Baker. In 1984 and 1985, Enloe was named Old Time Fiddler of the Year by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America.
The illness and death of Enloe's wife silenced his fiddle for a time. But he resumed playing and enjoyed teaching younger musicians and entertaining at jam sessions at his home.
So cool to see this TOTW make it to the "popular" tab on the BHO homepage : ) Guess that means you picked a winner, Janet!
Thanks for the history on Lyman Enloe, Erich - I'll have to look more into his tune list! I like "Sugar in the coffee" but I'm a little scared to learn it, lest it find its way into my version of Josio making some sort of hybrid tune (coffee on my josio?)
Here are some insights from Adam Hurt regarding solo banjo vs. banjo and fiddle duet arrangements. This idea of different styles of playing one tune came up earlier in this thread while pondering his Josie-O solo -- a unique, charming piece in a tuning not so commonly used -- fDGCD. So the question came to mind, if one was to create a banjo accompaniment to Art Stamper's Josie-O what might someone like Adam do differently? I had the opportunity today to ask Adam and I'll quote some of his response.
"I do play -- and arrange -- differently when in a fiddle/banjo duet environment than when going it alone. I tend to leave more room for the fiddle to do its thing, knowing that I can at various points take a more supportive or accompanying role without the melody of the tune falling apart....I may play a higher- or lower-register version of some or all of the tune in a way that would not add much musical value to a solo banjo setting....it ends up becoming a more skeletal melody than I would care to play on my own. I do sometimes revert to full or partial (that is, for a phrase or set of phrases...) backup, brushing or arpeggiating chords and connecting them with old-time guitar-like bass runs or other motifs. I may also play a bit of harmony to the fiddle's melody...."
This seems to be Adam's happy medium within the 'fully-melodic-to-fully rhythmic spectrum:' "If the fiddle were suddenly muted, the tune could still be clearly made out from my part alone....For me, that is a useful bottom line." Adam truly is sensitive to a balance between melody and rhythm, not wanting too many banjo notes to "compete with the fiddler's part for the lead role rather than cooperating to create a fully-synchronized sound."
The gist of his answer is that there need to be an interplay between banjo and fiddle that creates something pleasing and harmonious versus something competitive. A good example of this interplay is found in his new CD with fiddler Megan Lynch, called Inside Out. I'll listen again to the CD with my ears open to the art of their dueting.
Tomorrow I'll post my banjo solo of John Hartford's The Girl With the Blue Dress On, which addresses an entirely different issue -- what makes that tune a relative of Josie Girl? John called them "cousins."
Now that I've played both Josie Girl and John Hartford's The Girl With the Blue Dress On, I conclude they're only slightly related. You can listen to them put together in the medley. Further, John used Samuel Bayard's tune #246 in the book Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife and tweeked it in his typically creative way.
Janet, you always go above and beyond - just wanted to let you know that your efforts are appreciated!
Love the quotes by Adam about banjo-fiddle duets - its a pretty useful guideline. I actually did about an hour of banjo-fiddle dueting at lunch yesterday and I forgot how "exposed" you feel without a guitarist (especially when you're playing weirder/more difficult tunes and people are watching!) - I found myself getting a little more "chordal" than I normally do both as an effort to provide harmony and as a method of "hiding" a bit : )
The Girl with the Blue Dress on is a nice tune and thanks for doing a comparison video - I think your assessment that "they are only slightly related" is dead on.
I first heard the clawhammer version of Josie Girl on a 1998 release by Laura Boosinger ("Down the Road"), with Stuart Duncan on fiddle. She knew Charley Acuff, and attributes the tune, I believe, to his grandfather, Charles Boyd Acuff. At any rate, she does a great version, and I love her singing.
