While researching this week's Tune of the Week, I came across the following passage in Drew Beisswenger's book "Fiddling Way Out Yonder: Community and Style in the Fiddle Music of Melvin Wine":
Melvin called this tune a swing tune, in part because it was played at the amusement swing near his home by a fiddler named Jilly Grace. Melvin said that clog tunes and swing tunes were popular at the amusement swing.
I had never heard nor read the term "amusement swing" before - I assume it was some sort of dance gathering. A brief Internet search just turns up references to amusement park rides, and I suppose in this context it could be an "old-time" term for such an attraction, but I can't quite picture the need for a fiddler in that type of venue. Melvin was born in 1909, so he was probably talking about the 1920s at the earliest, when I would think recorded music would have been available - at least by the end of the decade. But maybe not at some local Braxton County amusement attraction; perhaps they did have musicians providing music. Or maybe it was indeed just a type of social gathering.
Anyway, I just wondered if anybody else had encountered the term, and knew specifically what it referred to.
