Winky Hicks

James "Winky" Hicks is a bluegrass musician and instrument maker from Grove Hill, Alabama.
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 and others on the Grand Ole Opry. An uncle gave him the "Winky" nickname.
Hicks is a regular at fiddlers festivals, where he plays the banjo 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. In 2019, he built a guitar, painted by a local artist, to commemorate Alabama's 2018 national championship; the guitar, signed by Nick Saban, fetched $3,500 in an auction with proceeds going to Saban's charity, Nick's Kids.
He also makes turkey yelpers.