James "Winky" Hicks (born 1953) is a bluegrass musician and instrument maker from

Grove Hill, Alabama Grove Hill is a town in Clarke County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 1,818. It is the county seat of Clarke County and home of the Clarke County Museum. History The area that is now Grove Hill was originally i ...

. Hicks started playing guitar at the age of 7. He learned to play bluegrass by watching his father play and picked up techniques by listening to

Earl Scruggs Earl Eugene Scruggs (January 6, 1924 – March 28, 2012) was an American musician noted for popularizing a three-finger banjo picking style, now called "Scruggs style", which is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. His three-finge ...

and others on the

Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...

. An uncle gave him the "Winky" nickname. Hicks is a regular at fiddlers festivals, where he plays the

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

with his band, the Frontier Bluegrass. He started making bluegrass string instruments in 2000. By 2019 he had constructed more than 200 mandolins, banjos, fiddles, and guitars. In 2011, he was named a "Black Belt Treasured Artist" by the Black Belt Treasures Cultural Arts Center, a non-profit from

Camden, Alabama Camden is a city in and the county seat of Wilcox County, Alabama, United States. The population was 1,927 at the 2020 census, down from 2,020 in 2010. History What is now Camden was established on property donated by Thomas Dunn from his p ...

. In 2019, he built a guitar, painted by a local artist, to commemorate Alabama's 2018 national championship; the guitar, signed by

Nick Saban Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. ( ; born October 31, 1951) is an American sportscaster and former Professional gridiron football, professional and college football coach. He serves as an analyst for ESPN's ''College GameDay (football TV program), Colleg ...

, fetched $3,500 in an auction with proceeds going to Saban's charity, Nick's Kids. He also makes turkey yelpers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hicks, Winky Living people Bluegrass musicians from Alabama American banjoists American luthiers American musical instrument makers People from Grove Hill, Alabama Year of birth missing (living people) Country musicians from Alabama 1950s births