Josie-O is a great G tune from Kentucky fiddler, Art Stamper. I learned it from the wonderfully spirited old-time CD recorded by Light and Hitch a few years ago. If you enjoy "festival style" old-time music, I can't recommend this disc highly enough. I really admire the twin fiddling of Mary Jane Epps and Aaron Olwell, not to mention the inspired banjo playing of A.D. Norcross. At times Mary Jane diverges into some tasty backup playing, slipping and sliding around the melody and chording with a nice synchopated drive, while Aaron tends to focus on solid, slightly ornate variations of the melody. They both exemplify the best of the bowing styles that I strive to emulate and teach. The fiddles are separated hard left and right in the recording, so it is super easy to listen for the subtle differences in their playing. My tab is based on Aaron's playing (right channel), since it tends to be more fundamental to the melody. It isn't obvious in the tab, but the tune is played AABC, so you'll need to repeat the A part shown above.
Many thanks to Joseph "joebass" DeJarnette, bassist and engineer on the Light and Hitch CD, for permission to share the recording of "Josio" here to accompany my tablature. Joe recorded the group outdoors, just after the Mt. Airy fiddlers convention in 2007, and did an outstanding job with it.
For printing or viewing the tablature in Acrobat or Adobe Reader, download the PDF version.