About Joey
Joey was born in Oneida, KY and raised in Winchester, KY. and he has the accent to prove it. “I grew up singing in a very musical family. My mother sang alto, my dad sang bass and he and two of my brothers were choir directors. My sister, B.G. (Betty Gene Hibbard) is an excellent piano player and without her help I would’ve never figured out how to translate Dave Grusin’s piano instrumental, “Memphis Stomp” into guitar licks”
When he was in grade school he started playing trombone in band only because, “we had one at the house”. After high school, Joey started taking banjo lessons from Susan Carson while attending Milligan College Tenn. on a basketball scholarship. “Susan had me re-string my acoustic guitar like a 5-string banjo so I could practice my rolls at the dorm until I could afford to buy one”. After joining the 264th Army band in Hawaii as a trombone player, he met some country pickers at Schofield Barracks. He ended up performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with the Army’s finest country band as a guitar/banjo player. Joey has performed at the Grand Ol’ Opry, had his music on Continental Airlines, performed with members of the Honolulu Symphony on Waikiki Beach and opened shows for Marty Robbins and Ronnie Milsap.
“I give credit to Susan Carson, Carl Jackson and Jerry Reed for the way I approach playing guitar and banjo.”
With 7 CD’s to his credit. his latest endeavor is by far the most difficult and the most rewarding. “I started working on some of Jerry Reed’s songs which have taken me years to figure out. I thought if I could perform some of his hits like, “Eastbound and Down”, “Amos Moses“ , “Guitar Man“, “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” along with those blistering fast instrumentals like “Jerry’s Breakdown“, I’d have accomplished a goal of mine ”
