About Joey

Joey was born in Oneida, Kentucky and raised in Winchester, Kentucky — and yes, he has the accent to prove it. He grew up in a seriously musical family: his mother sang alto, his father sang bass (and was a choir director, along with two of Joey’s brothers), and his sister, B.G. (Betty Gene Hibbard), is an excellent piano player. Joey often says that without her help, he never would have figured out how to translate Dave Grusin’s piano instrumental “Memphis Stomp” into guitar licks.

In grade school, Joey started playing trombone in band for one simple reason: they had one at the house. After high school, he began taking banjo lessons from Susan Carson while attending Milligan College in Tennessee on a basketball scholarship. Susan had Joey restring his acoustic guitar like a 5-string banjo so he could practice rolls in his dorm room until he could afford the real thing.

After joining the 264th Army Band in Hawaii as a trombone player, Joey met a group of country pickers at Schofield Barracks — and the rest is history. He went on to perform at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with the Army’s finest country band as a guitar and banjo player. Joey has since performed at the Grand Ole Opry, had his music featured on Continental Airlines, played with members of the Honolulu Symphony on Waikiki Beach, and opened shows for Marty Robbins and Ronnie Milsap.

Joey credits Susan Carson, Carl Jackson, and Jerry Reed for shaping the way he approaches both guitar and banjo — and it shows every time he steps on stage.