Blueberries growing on Sourwood Mountain, aho doo da day…
Early June Garden in Southern Appalachia
East Virginia (2018)
Matthew Govig “Sally Ann” 18th-century gourd banjo
Smokey
My old horse died, and the mule went lame. I Lost my cow in a poker game...
James Hartel minstrel "Boucher" banjo - serial # 76
Reproduction Boucher Banjo by James Hartel (Serial No. 76)
Worker on the hillside hewin’ up a log…
Early Gourd Banjo handmade by Clifton Hicks
Carving tuning pegs with my friends…
"Black Velvet Band" 1867 Dobson Banjo
Way down on the old plantation where Massie kept me as a slave…
Cotton Eyed Joe
“When You and I Were Young, Maggie”
Dead Mustang
"Midnight Special" feat. Aaron Stephens
Banjo Building & Bee Trapping 🐝
Corn planting🌽
Planting POTATOES 🥔
Wilson & Cross LIVE at Polk County Ramp Tramp 2025 🌱
"Muddy Road" gourd banjo by Clifton Hicks (2022)
Damn good rifle and a damn good dog…
Tellico Blockhouse (new reconstruction)
I never seen Hell 'til I met your wife!
Sally wouldn't wed me so I shipped across the water...
Tomatoes, Peppers & “Ida Red”
Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down
1860 Ahsborn Guitar "Hard, Ain't It Hard" Woody Guthrie
"You Shall Be Free" (Bill & Belle Reed, Sonny Terry, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly)
"Walking Cane" feat. Matt Kinman
"Marching Through Georgia" Wax Cylinder Phonograph Recording
Rasping a black walnut banjo neck
Bee hunting!
RAMPS! Allium tricoccum, wild leek, wood leek, wild garlic...
"Rooster Crow Medley" by Uncle Dave Macon (Sally Goodin)
"Old Rub Alcohol Blues" by Dock Boggs (1929)
One day the old man was peepin’ through the crack…
View of Fort Loudon with early gourd banjo by Clifton Hicks
Sundown
Whitetail Deer in the Mulberries
Coon Hunt Walkaround / Brother Jim Got Shot
"Boots and Leggings" WV Mountain Banjo by Clifton Hicks
Garlic: plant in November & harvest in June
Old Copper Road on the Ocoee River
Battle of Athens - McMinn County War
“Little Gold Fiddle" feat. Aaron Stephens
You Don't Know My Darling / Coon Hunt Walkaround
Clifton Hicks is a banjo player, songwriter, and anthropologist known for his work in American folk music. He was raised in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas before settling in Tennessee. His musical performances and teaching often emphasize the colonial American origins of the banjo.
Clifton is an accomplished folk artist, having built dozens of banjos based on historical examples. His builds are entirely handmade, using only locally sourced hardwood, bone, and other materials.
Hicks enlisted in the U.S. Amy in 2002 at the age of seventeen, serving as a tank driver and machine gunner in Germany and Iraq. After two combat deployments, he applied for and was granted full conscientious objector status. He was honorably discharged in 2005.
In 2013, Hicks graduated from Appalachian State University with a bachelor's degree in anthropology. His academic studies were concentrated in the archaeology and history of the southeastern United States, which remains his chief area of interest.