The earliest memory that James Abraham “Jimmy” Boyd ever had was smelling the sweet smell of chipped corn mash heating on an oak fire.  Growing up in “the wettest county in the world,” Franklin County, VA., moonshine and mountain music were earliest ingredients in Jimmy’s life. 

        “The two just seemed to always go together, somehow in my life,” said Jimmy, “They’re both about having fun!” he said. “They’re both about having fun, dancing and having a party, and they’re both something you make yourself,” he exclaimed.  And having homemade fun and sharing that fun with other folks in the Blue Ridge was a huge part of Jimmy’s life.

        Jimmy learned both moonshining and clawhammer banjo playing from his older brother, Billy, who took Jimmy to work with him at his still when Jimmy was 12.  Although Jimmy heard and listened to old time music since the age of two it was much later on, when Jimmy was nearly 30, his brother began to show him how to play the banjo. As they whiled away the time waiting on the mash or the cooking of the corn, Billy showed Jimmy the basic clawhammer licks and instilled in him a love for old time music that would last a lifetime, as would his skill as a distiller.

        A few years later, a mountain woman who often came to Jimmy’s impromptu band sessions at his auto body shop on Dry Hill in rural Franklin County would say to Jimmy and the members of his newly formed band, The Dry Hill Draggers, “You all always get to playing a lot better when you take a little drink. Your music flows better. It blends better,” She said. Jimmy believed from that day that whenever the two got together, the music just flowed.

        Jimmy played in a style that accented rhythm more than melody.  In spite of the band name, the “Draggers” his music was fast and his banjo playing was often described as banging or thrashing.  It came to epitomize what is now known as the “Franklin County Bounce” style of playing.  Because of Jimmy’s great influence on the players at the annual festival in Galax and his many wins in the clawhammer banjo contest and band contest there, the “bounce” has become a featured style at the Old Fiddler’s Conventionn.

        From the earliest days in the 1970’s the Dryhill Draggers, under Jimmy’s leadership became one of the most followed dance bands in the region and mountain dancers from around the region would flock to their performances at dance halls, schools, festivals and public events.  His style of banjo playing quickly evolved into one of the most recognizable styles in the area, fast and hard driving. “It started to look like everyone wanted to come around and dance when we was playing,” said Jimmy, “You know, at somebody’s house party or front yard.”

        When asked about how his style developed, Jimmy had a clear explanation, “You see, then,” he explained, “I just stopped trying to learn individual tunes. I concentrated on the dance lick on the banjo.  I found that if I strummed down a little harder on that banjo, I could make them people dance harder.”  And dance harder they did, for nearly 50 years.

        One fan of Jimmy’s described his style to him like this: “I finally figured out what you’re doing. You’re playing something like the tempo, the rhythm, and the tune all at the same time.”  What Jimmy was doing worked.  He and the Draggers recorded more than six albums and a retrospective, and his sons, Jamie and Stacy Boyd, as well has his grandson, Jared Boyd have all become legends of their own in old time music circles.  In later years Jimmy became a fixture at the Virginia Folk Life Festival at Ferrum College, sharing stories of moonshing with delighted crowds and returned to Galax every year to hold banjo “court” in the campgrounds of the festival.

For more reading:

Jarrett, Pat, (2025) Remembering Jimmy Boyd, Virginia Folklife Program, retrievable at: https://www.virginiafolklife.org/sights-sounds/remembering-jimmy-boyd/

Smith, Malcolm (2022) Rhythm and Genes: The Moonshining and Old Time Music of

SW Virginia’s Boyd Family, A Voice From the Holler, Blog, retrievable at:

https://appalachianholler.com/2021/09/14/rhythm-and-genes-the-moonshining-and-old-time-music-of-sw-virginias-boyd-family/