Our setting of this common West Virginia tune comes from Melvin Wine (1909-2003) of Braxton County. Melvin learned this from Tom Allen (Milnes: 34). Other West Virginia fiddlers play similar settings. Eastern Kentucky fiddlers like Hiram Stamper, Mannon Campbell and Ed Haley also play their settings not too distant from Melvin's. A great many of Melvin's tunes came from family sources and he can trace his fiddle ancestry back to the late 1700s. But another source was introduced by his father, Bob, who took him to see a neighbor unrelated to the Wine family. This was John Cogar, born about 1825, who taught him at least one tune and perhaps others. Here we have our first example of a fiddler who learned, at least a few tunes, directly from a fiddler born before our 1840 date, that is, one generation removed from that time period.
