Hickman, John

JOHN HICKMAN

  • From Columbus, Ohio. Lived in Southern California for more than 30 years and then moved to Guthrie, Oklahoma.
  • An influential banjo player who began his musical career with an Ohio group called Sid Campbell and the Country Cut-ups.
  • 1962, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps.
  • 1968, joined Earl Taylor’s Stoney Mountain Boys.
  • 1969, moved to California to take a job in the lumber business. He formed a group with his brother George called The Hickman Brothers and also played banjo on several movie soundtracks and the TV show “The Dukes of Hazzard.”
  • 1976, formed an informal partnership with fiddler Byron Berline which lasted for the rest of his life. Together they played in band such as Sundance, The L.A. Fiddle Band, BCH (Berline, Crary, Hickman), California and the Byron Berline Band.
  • 1978, was a member of the L.A. band Corn Bred.
  • 1978, released his only solo project Don’t Mean Maybe (Rounder).
  • 1995, moved to Guthrie, Oklahoma with Byron Berline. Besides performing in the Byron Berline Band, he did repair work in Byron’s “Double-Stop Fiddle Shop.”
  • 2001, added steel guitar to his repertoire (with the Byron Berline Band).
  • 2021, died at the age of 78.