Background
He was born on Stovall"s Plantation, near Clarksdale, Mississippi.
He was born on Stovall"s Plantation, near Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Boyd moved to the Beale Street district of Memphis, Tennessee, in 1936, where he played piano and guitar with his group, the Dixie Rhythm Boys. Boyd followed the great migration north to the factories of Chicago in 1941. He wrote and recorded the songs "Five Long Years" (1952), "24 Hours" (1953), and "Third Degree" (co-written by Willie Dixon, also 1953).
Boyd toured Europe with Buddy Guy"s band in 1965 as part of the American Folk Blues Festival.
He later toured and recorded with Fleetwood Mac and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Tired of the racial discrimination he experienced in the United States, he moved to Belgium, where he recorded with the Dutch band Cuby and the Blizzards.
He moved again, in 1970, to Helsinki, Finland, where he recorded ten blues records, the first being Praise to Helsinki (1970). Boyd died in 1994 in Helsinki, just a few months before Eric Clapton released the chart-topping blues album From the Cradle, which includes Boyd"s "Five Long Years" and "Third Degree".