Wine, Melvin

Wine was born near Burnsville, West Virginia, in 1909, and lived most of his life in the nearby community of Copen. He earned his livelihood largely from coal mining and logging, but between 1923 and 1938 he was active as a fiddler at dances, competitions, and various informal events in central West Virginia. He also played with his brother Clarence on radio station WMMN in Fairmont around 1930. After refraining from almost all performing between 1938 and 1957 for religious reasons, he slowly returned to fiddling at folk festivals and other non-dance events. Since the mid-1960s, he has usually placed in the top three at the fiddle competitions at the annual West Virginia State Folk Festival. In recent years, he has released three commercial recordings and performed at events throughout the country.