If you try to categorize the music of James Hinkle you'll find yourself in a world of trouble. This Fort Worth native's influences are so wide ranging that an average musician would just give it up and get a day job. Fortunately for us, James is not your average musician. "I just tell them they have to make a new category for me, Eclec-Tex," grinned Hinkle. "Actually, I think I'd just call it Texas Music. There's some country, some cajun, some tejano, some rock, and some blues all mixed in there. A little bit of all the stuff in me." James grew up in Cowtown and, in his youth, witnessed the last heyday of the real juke joint Mecca on Jacksboro Highway. It was there that he met Freddie Cisneros who turned him onto blues guitar and the grand vizir of Fort Worth Blues, Robert Ealey. "Freddie was in the Five Careless Lovers at that time," remembered Hinkle. "He started teaching me how to play blues guitar and taking me to all the little joints around town. This was back when Robert was running The Bluebird (a classic Fort Worth juke joint) and he was in and out of that band a lot." Around 1981 James went off to college in Austin and ended up with a degree in Art and Education. After teaching for a year he ended up playing guitar full time in a jazz band called Tempest. That later morphed into a band called Housewives Choice and eventually led to a full time position playing guitar behind Marcia Ball. In 1988 Hinkle moved back to Fort Worth, but continued his travels with Marcia Ball's band. After leaving Marcia's group, he fronted an Austin band, The Hoodoo Cats for awhile before teaming up with Fort Worth's Johnny Mack. That pairing pleased listeners, but didn't provide enough cash flow for either performer. It was finally time for James to step out on his own.