14 Facts About Eddie Boyd

Eddie Boyd was born either on Stovall's Plantation, near Clarksdale, Mississippi, or on Frank Moore's Plantation, near Stovall, Mississippi.

Eddie Boyd learned to play the guitar and the piano.

Eddie Boyd's piano playing was influenced by the styles of Roosevelt Sykes and Leroy Carr.

Eddie Boyd moved to the Beale Street district of Memphis, Tennessee, in 1936, where he played with his group, the Dixie Rhythm Boys.

Eddie Boyd then joined the Great Migration of African Americans north to the factories of Chicago in 1941.

Eddie Boyd recorded for Bluebird Records, accompanying such musicians as Sonny Boy Williamson, Jazz Gillum, Muddy Waters, and Tampa Red, before making his first recordings under his own name, in 1947.

Eddie Boyd signed with Parrot Records, which then sold his contract to Chess Records.

Eddie Boyd went on to record for a series of smaller labels in the 1950s, but an automobile accident in 1957 in which he was injured put his career on hold for a while.

Eddie Boyd toured Europe with Buddy Guy's band in 1965 as part of the American Folk Blues Festival.

Unhappy with the racial discrimination faced in the United States, Eddie Boyd moved to Belgium, where he recorded with the Dutch band Cuby and the Blizzards.

Eddie Boyd moved again, in 1970, to Helsinki, Finland, where he continued to perform and recorded ten blues records, the first being Praise to Helsinki.

Eddie Boyd died in 1994 at the Meilahti Hospital in Helsinki.

Eddie Boyd was buried in the St Lawrence Church's cemetery in Vantaa.

In 2009 a plaque was unveiled on a building at Helsinginkatu 12c in Helsinki, Finland, where Eddie Boyd had lived the last third of his life.