James "Winky" Hicks 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 inha ...

. 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 usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

with his band, the Frontier Bluegrass. Besides string instruments such as

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

s, he also makes turkey yelpers. 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 2,020 at the 2010 census, down from 2,257 in 2000, at which time it was a town. History What is now Camden was established on property donate ...

References

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 {{US-musician-stub