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<\/p>\nOne of the more intriguing blues releases of late is What My Eyes Have Seen<\/i> by 75-year old singer and songwriter John \u201cBlues\u201d Boyd. But despite his years, Mississippi-born Boyd has only been a professional musician for just over a decade. Yet in that short period, he\u2019s been making up for time.<\/p>\n
Johnny James Boyd Jr. was born in the cradle of the blues, in Greenwood, Mississippi. \u201cI lived on Pearl Street, just on the other side of the railroad track in a section called Baptist Town,\u201d he recalls. But the neighborhood of his birth is long gone. \u201cThey made those people tear those houses down,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
John \u201cBlues\u201d Boyd was immersed in the blues from a very young age. \u201cI have been listening to the blues since I was three and a half or four,\u201d he says. \u201cMy daddy played the blues on the phonograph a lot.\u201d Boyd\u2019s father was a serious fan of a musician born the same year as him: B.B. King. \u201cHe also loved Little Junior Parker,\u201d Boyd says. \u201cI think he\u2019s the best blues singer I ever heard.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Unlike some blues musicians, Boyd doesn\u2019t cite the church as an influence on his music. \u201cThe blues ain\u2019t got nothing to do with the church,\u201d he insists. \u201cA lot of people say that, but they\u2019re incorrect and uninformed.\u201d That steady diet of blues and r&b on the elder Boyd\u2019s record player \u2013 plus the sounds of local musicians \u2013 provided all the musical inspiration he would need. And his life experiences would provide fodder for the words to his songs.<\/p>\n
Blues was all around Boyd as a young boy in Greenwood. One of his kindergarten classmates was a nephew of Eddie \u201cGuitar Slim\u201d Jones. And \u2013 though somewhat removed \u2013 musical talent was in Boyd\u2019s family. \u201cI had a step-grandfather on my mother\u2019s side,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThe called him Silas Green. He used to sing and dance right there in Greenwood.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Boyd claims Eddie Boyd as a relative. A fellow Mississippi native, Eddie Boyd scored several hits, most notably the #1 R&B single \u201cFive Long Years\u201d in 1953. \u201cHe was supposed to be, from what I was told, first cousin to my dad,\u201d says John Boyd. \u201cI never did get a chance to see or meet Eddie; he was already gone to Europe because he had gone not too long after he wrote \u2018Five Long Years.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
John Boyd didn\u2019t play an instrument, but he could sing. \u201cI was just born with a voice to sing the blues,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen they first heard me, my mother and grandmother and all of them was in the house: \u2018Come and listen to Johnny!\u2019 I was back there singing along with Junior Parker [on the turntable]. I was about eight years old at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Influenced by the blues greats, Boyd started writing songs when he was just 12 years old. He sent some of them off to publishers but never heard anything back. \u201cOne time I mailed one, and the next time I heard that song, some guy was singing it on the radio,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI didn\u2019t send it probably where I should have. I sent it to Nashville; I probably should\u2019ve sent it to somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boyd says that the song in question was called \u201cOle Dear One,\u201d and he recites some of the lyrics. \u201cCome and see me when the lights are low \/ I want to hear you knock on my door \/ Tell me pretty baby everything is all right \/ and love me, love me, love me with all of your might!\u201d<\/p>\n
Pressed for details, Boyd provides a bit more context. \u201cWell, I didn\u2019t exactly write<\/i> that song,\u201d he admits. \u201cIt was written by friends of mine that I had known all my life.\u201d But he insists that he did write plenty. \u201cSome of the songs I wrote, I didn\u2019t think that they were all that good,\u201d he says. \u201cSo I just ripped them up. But I was always writing songs.\u201d<\/p>\n
But life got in the way, and Boyd\u2019s musical endeavors would be put on hold for the better part of a half century.<\/p>\n
\u201cI left Greenwood, Mississippi when I was 18 years old, about six days after they murdered JFK,\u201d Boyd recalls. \u201cI was in that freedom movement.\u201d In the wake of President Kennedy\u2019s assassination, he took part in a protest march. \u201cWe were walking down McLaurin Street, talking loud. The law was riding around with their lights turned off.\u201d The police called out to Boyd, demanding that he and his friend \u2013 also named Johnny \u2013 come over to their patrol car. \u201cMy friend, he stutters when he talks: \u2018Let\u2019s, let\u2019s go. We better go and see what they want.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
But Boyd was having none of it. \u201cI told him, \u2018Let\u2019s hit this alley right here by the railroad track.\u2019 So I ran and went into that alley. I got away from them.\u201d But Boyd\u2019s friend went over to talk to the cops. \u201cWhen I saw him later, he had tears in his eye,\u201d Boyd recalls. \u201cI was thinking that they might have whipped him in his rear or beat him around a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
He asked his friend what had happened. But Boyd\u2019s friend didn’t go into details. \u201cHe told me, \u2018Johnny, Johnny you shouldn\u2019t have run!\u2019 And I said, \u2018Yes the hell I should have! You too! I told you to go!\u2019\u201d Concerned about what might happen to him if he stuck around, Boyd made the decision then and there to leave Greenwood. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t have any other money to go North or go West to California like I wanted to do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a guy I had seen over in Greenwood a lot,\u201d Boyd says. \u201cBig white guy; his name was Junior. He had one of those old fashioned panel trucks.\u201d Junior knew of some work opportunities in Florida. \u201cSix days later \u2013 November 28th<\/sup> \u2013 I said goodbye to my grandmother and my mother and sisters and brothers, and took off and went to Florida to go work on the migrant bean farm,\u201d he says. He landed near Homestead, in the extreme Southern end of the state. \u201cWe went to B&L [Farms] quarters, and I stayed on there until sometime after Christmas,\u201d Boyd says. But he quickly realized he didn\u2019t like the work. \u201cSo then I went to Pompano Beach.\u201d<\/p>\n It was there where he\u2019d meet Dona Mae. She would figure prominently in both his life and his musical journey.<\/p>\n