Melvin Wine (1909 to 2003) was an old-time fiddler from Copen, in Braxton County, West Virginia. He lived his whole life in that county and played tunes handed down through four generations of his family. He held more than 250 tunes in his head, and he could not read music or words. The National Endowment for the Arts gave him a National Heritage Fellowship in 1991, the highest honor the United States gives a folk artist.
Why Wine matters
Wine is a source. Most fiddlers learn old tunes from records or from other revival players. Wine learned his from his father, from his father’s friends, and from the old men of central West Virginia in the 1920s. He kept that music alive through decades of coal mining and farming, then handed it to a new generation through the Augusta Heritage Center and the state apprenticeship program. When a jam plays a Braxton County tune today, the line often runs straight back to him.
Life and career
Wine was born on April 20, 1909, near Burnsville, West Virginia. His father, Bob Wine, played fiddle. His mother, Elizabeth Sandy Wine, sang ballads and hymns. The family fiddling line reached back to his great-grandfather, David “Smithy” Wine, born in 1829. Melvin left school in the first grade.
He picked up his father’s fiddle at age nine, while his father was away working as a farmhand. One of the first tunes he learned was Bonaparte’s Retreat. His father then taught him the family tunes. As a teenager he played for dances and sought out older fiddlers in the region, among them John Cogar, Pat Cogar, and “Uncle” Jack McElwain of Webster County. At 13 he won a fiddle contest in Gassaway and gave the prize money to the older champion he had beaten.
During the Depression, Wine and his brother Clarence played restaurants, bars, and regional radio for a few months before going home to Copen. He married Etta Singleton, a banjo and guitar player who called square dances, in 1930. He worked for years as a coal miner, then as a farmer. After a frightening event at a party as a young man, he put the fiddle down for more than 20 years. He took it up again to calm a granddaughter, and decided the music was a gift he should use.
From the late 1950s he played the West Virginia State Folk Festival in Glenville, where he became the most frequent winner of the fiddle contest. His first solo record, Cold Frosty Morning, came out on Poplar Records in 1976. He played the Smithsonian Institution, Wolf Trap, and the Vandalia Gathering, and a weekly volunteer show at a Braxton County nursing home. In 1981 he became the first winner of West Virginia’s Vandalia Award. The NEA named him a National Heritage Fellow in 1991. He died on March 16, 2003, at age 93.
Playing style
Wine played the central West Virginia style, and his repertoire stayed tied to that region. The NEA praised his bow work and the size of his repertoire, which included tunes that reach back more than 200 years to the first Appalachian settlers. His style came from the 19th century, not from the radio.
He learned from his father by trading jobs: one of them noted the strings while the other worked the bow. That early split between the hands shows in his playing. The bow carries the rhythm and the left hand keeps the melody plain.
Influences and legacy
His father, Bob Wine, was his main influence. He also named Sam Hacker, Jack Blake, John Cogar, Milt Perkins, and Jilly Grace as teachers, and he made a special trip to learn from “Uncle Jack” McElwain and Tom Dillon.
Wine taught in the master and apprentice program at the Augusta Heritage Center at Davis and Elkins College, and he mentored three young fiddlers through the West Virginia Folk Art Apprenticeship Program. His best-known student is Jake Krack, who later won the Clifftop fiddle contest and the Galax old-time fiddle title. A 2011 children’s book, Passing the Music Down, tells their story. Erynn Marshall also learned from him and wrote about West Virginia fiddling in her book Music in the Air Somewhere. Drew Beisswenger’s 2002 book Fiddling Way Out Yonder is the full study of Wine’s life and music.
Signature tunes and songs
Cold Frosty Morning Yew Piney Mountain Hannah at the Springhouse Bob Wine’s Tune Tippy Get Your Hair Cut I Don’t Love Nobody Bonaparte’s Retreat.
Essential recordings
Cold Frosty Morning: Traditional Fiddle Tunes from Braxton County, West Virginia (Poplar Records, 1976) Hannah at the Springhouse (Marimac Recordings, 1989) Vintage Wine (Marimac Recordings, 1993)
Awards and honors
Vandalia Award, first recipient, West Virginia Division of Culture and History (1981) NEA National Heritage Fellowship (1991)
Watch and listen
Wine plays a full concert with Gerry Milnes in 1992, filmed by Appalshop. Listen for the steady dance pulse in his bow arm.
A short clip of Wine playing Rachel, one of his Braxton County tunes.
What to learn from Wine
Learn Cold Frosty Morning from the 1976 record. It is a modal tune in A, and it teaches you to hold a drone under the melody without cluttering it. The technique to steal is his bow rhythm. Wine played for square dancers, so every stroke lands on the beat and the tune never speeds up. Play along with the Appalshop concert and match his pulse before you add any notes of your own.
Sources
Melvin Wine, Wikipedia Melvin Wine: Appalachian Fiddler, National Endowment for the Arts Melvin Wine, e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the bluegrass fiddle guide for more old-time and bluegrass fiddlers. Erynn Marshall learned from Wine, and Bruce Molsky carries the same source repertoire to concert stages. Clark Kessinger and Ed Haley are the other West Virginia fiddlers every old-time player should know.