Note: I’ve had a very interesting and varied life; this bio will concentrate only on the banjo part of it!
1960
     I was born into and raised in a banjo family. My father, Myron Hinkle was a professional musician (banjo, piano) and was the founder of the Seattle Banjo Club and the Grays Harbor Banjo Band. He is a 2009 inductee in the Four-String Banjo Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, in the Promotion category. Being in this family meant that I heard banjo music throughout my childhood, beginning in the womb. My mother was my father’s biggest fan, and she would dance and sing while he played. By the time I started playing, I already knew all the songs in my head.
1972
     I started playing banjo at the age of 12. My sister Linda had recently started, and was playing with the GHBB and the newly formed G.H. Junior Banjo Band. I decided I wanted to be a part of that, so that was my inspiration to start. My addition made the group a quintet, and we took the name the “Jubilee Five.” For five years, we played all over the Northwest, did a segment of The Music Place on Seattle’s Channel 9, and even had our own twice-monthly musical variety show on local TV in Aberdeen, Washington. Another highlight was playing at the Sacramento Banjorama in 1973. My sister and I did a duo act for three straight years on the talent show at our school, and took first place every year!
     I started on tenor and played it for about a year. My best friend, Ed Alkire was learning plectrum, and I liked the mellower sound of it better. My Dad acquired a 1936 Vegavox IV plectrum from a friend who could no longer play. I had no idea what I had! When we started getting offers to buy it (for more money than I could fathom at that age), I actually became scared to play it. I eventually convinced my Dad that I didn’t need that much banjo, so he used it to settle an old debt. I wish I had that banjo now!
1978
     When I left home to join the Air Force, I stopped playing. For the next ten years, I rarely played, usually at family events on my rare visits home.
1987-91
     My wife Paige, daughter Carlee and I were living in Salt Lake City. I decided it was time to get back to playing; I went to a local acoustic instrument store and inquired about local banjo players. They gave me the numbers for the “Silver Strings Banjo Bunch” in Provo, and the “Salt Lake Banjo Trio.” Soon I was playing with both groups. I took a couple of lessons from the lead player of the Provo group, Bill Lowery. Dad found me a good deal on a 1925 Gibson PB3—a definite upgrade from the Ludwig I had. Shortly after that, one of my band-mates in Provo, Al Weber, offered to build me a banjo. This is the instrument I still play!
     In Salt Lake City, the now quartet decided to become the Salt Lake Banjo Club. We advertised in the paper and grew to about a dozen members, and played community gigs around the area. We also played the Boise Circle the Wagons show a few times. I also played that show in ’89 with my Dad, my sister Linda, and her husband Andy Hall. Together we billed ourselves as “Papa Hink & His Little Stinkers.” Dad had suggested the name half jokingly, and we all loved it (and they all loved us!).
     As a Navy Reservist, I did my active duty time in Concord, California. I met many Bay Area players while I was there, and sat in with the Oakland Banjo Club and the East Bay Banjo Club. I was also able to go the Sonora Strum and Thump show in ’88 and ’89. I met Buddy Wachter at Sonora, a meeting that would change my “banjo world-view” completely. Over the next few years I took his Banjo Pathways seminar three times, hosting him for two of them.
     In 1990, I was a headliner on the Boise show, the Seattle Banjo Show, and the Peninsula Banjo Club’s show in Palo Alto. At the Seattle show, I taught an impromptu plectrum banjo seminar that was very well attended and received. I remember that Sandy Reiner was there and taught a tenor banjo seminar. That summer I also played regularly with Joe Banana and the Banana Bunch from Kennewick, Washington (this group later became the Three Rivers Jazz Band, which I played with again a few times in ’98).
     This era came to an abrupt end when my Navy Reserve unit was deployed in support of Operation Desert Storm. We spent seven months at Subic Bay, Philippines, a forward supply point. Shortly after I returned, I started school at Central Washington University.
1991-96
     These were kinda lean banjo years, with a few notable exceptions. I had to work real hard on the clarinet and in the music theory and music history classes, so the banjo basically went back in the closet. None of this came easy for this banjo player! I put together a Dixie band in my “spare time.” We called ourselves the Jazz Wildcats. I managed to get us invited to the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee in the youth band category; we went three times (’92, ’93, ’94). We had grown to be a 12 piece ‘20s Jazz Orchestra by the third year called the Agony Hall Stompers.
     A Friend on the banjo committee hooked me up with an appearance on “The Magic Banjo Shop” and on the banjo show.  The first year I played with Fast Eddie Ericson and Pat Dineen (we really clicked; that was a blast!), the second year with Doug Mattocks (we didn’t click; that was not much fun), and the third year with Scott Anthony (let’s just say it was interesting). To top it all off during these years, I played a couple of Jazz Fests with the Electric Park Jazz Band from Olympia, WA. At that time, I was also contributing a series of articles called “Young Banjoists” to Banjos Unlimited for the quarterly magazine The Resonator.
     The other very notable event in this era was a job at Phillips Crab House in Ocean City, Maryland. Buddy offered the job to me, and I played the summers of ’93 and ’94. The second year we made it a working family vacation; the trip cross country was a great adventure, especially for our 9 year old daughter. While there in ’93, Buddy brought me to Baltimore to play for the festivities surrounding the Baseball All-Star Game at Camden Yards. I got to watch the game from the Camden Club! In ’94, I got to play at the Washington D.C. Phillips. This job was my first real experience as a wandering entertainer, and it really opened me up; for one thing, I had to learn to sing! The other notable musical event was when I switched from the Navy Reserve to the Air National Guard Band at Fairchild AFB in the fall of ’94.
1997-99
     After graduating, I took a High School teaching job in Rathdrum, Idaho. Let’s just say I found out I didn’t have what it takes to keep teenagers in line, much less teach them music! After resigning that job, Carlee and I moved in with my parents for awhile while Paige was doing her Air Force basic training and tech school. That summer, I was offered a musical instrument repair job in Portland by one of my Guard Band buddies. I was also called to become the banjo player for Pat O’Neal and the Riverboat Jazz Band! That has proven to be one of my favorite and most valuable musical experiences. I played with them for a year and a half on the Queen of the West riverboat out of Portland and on various gigs around town. During that time, I also played with the Black Swan Classic Jazz Band (when schedules didn’t clash). I recorded with both groups in ’98. I also played a few gigs with the Three Rivers Jazz Band from Kennewick, Washington (and made a demo CD with them).
1999-Present
     In March of ’99, I joined the Army. Call it a mid-life crisis decision, but it’s proven to be the best one I’ve ever made (mid-life or otherwise)! My first duty assignment was to the 76th Army Band in Wiesbaden, Germany (later moved to Mannheim). To make a long story short, I was with that band for six years, played in 13 countries on three continents (including Iraq), and traveled with my family to 10 additional European countries. The job was much too busy for side work, so the banjo suffered a bit. Our Dixieland Combo played quite a bit though, so I got a lot of good experience there. I also got to play on the Dusseldorf Banjo Band’s show in ’03, shortly after I returned from Iraq. On one of my last tours there, I got to play banjo on Rhapsody in Blue.
     My next assignment was the 36th Army Band at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Soon after I got there, I found a gig at the Classic Coffee Shop. It was run by an old country singer by the name of Billy Carter. I played there every Friday and Saturday evening as part of an open-mike variety show for a month and a half, then it closed down. This was an important gig for me, because I had a regular audience who requested the same songs every night. It taught me that I didn’t have to have something new and exciting for each night; the favorites worked every time! It was a very intimate place, and whatever performance shyness I may have had at the beginning was totally gone by the end. I’ve never been nervous in front of an audience since! I also played with the Dixie Combo and occasionally on our community recital series. I was able to attend the Arizona Banjo Blast in ’06 where I met Don Van Palta for the first time. What a great guy!
     In January ’08, I started my current assignment with the Eighth Army Band in Seoul, Korea. I’ll be here until January ‘11, then who knows? “Home is where the Army sends me,” we like to say. I’m leading the Dixie Combo of course, but I’m also starting to play in more mainstream jazz settings. I’ve got two banjo students (both Korean Soldiers), and hope to have an active hand in introducing the banjo to the Korean populace. Everywhere I’ve played, I’ve had curious locals asking what it is. There are even a couple of blogs on the internet from people who have seen the Dixie Combo, and who give the banjo special mention.