Tulsa Western swing pianist Clarence Boyd dies

Tulsa Western swing pianist Clarence Boyd dies at 76

by: JENNIFER CHANCELLOR World Scene Writer
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
6/23/2009 9:39:56 PM

Longtime Western swing pianist Clarence Boyd of Kellyville died Tuesday morning, his family and longtime friends confirmed.

He was 76 years old. He died from complications related to multiple strokes, friends confirmed.

Services will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at the First Baptist Church of Kellyville. For more than 60 years, Boyd played with numerous national artists, including Johnny Lee Wills, Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline, Reba McEntire and Marvin McCullough. He was also a longtime regular with the Tulsa swing act the Round Up Boys.

And he did it all playing by ear — he never learned a note of music, he said. “If you can hum it, whistle it, or sing it, I can play it,” Boyd said in a 1997 interview with the Tulsa World.

Longtime friend, local radio and TV personality Billy Parker agreed. “In my whole career, he’s probably the sweetest, kindest, best musician I’ve ever worked with. He’s a great musician and is going to be missed,” he said Tuesday afternoon by phone.

For years, the pair worked together on shows for nearly every local TV station and even from the old Duke’s Country club here in Tulsa.

Boyd co-wrote (with Rocky Caple) one of the country's most popular steel guitar solo songs “The Sawed-Off Shotgun.” He also wrote and recorded one of the longest playing jingles in music history, “Keep Rollin’ with Bollin," Bristow’s Ford dealership.

In 1997, Boyd described Western swing music as “the next thing to jazz music. It has the big band sound, and they use a horn section. It’s not plain country music, and it’s not played like rock 'n' roll. It’s strictly dance music.”

Tulsa musician David Thayer met Boyd in the ‘70s and played with him in his band, Tulsa Boyz, for years.

“Clarence could play any song that any famous artist ever wrote,” Thayer said during a Tuesday afternoon phone interview.

“Some of them would come in and say, ‘Now this one here’s a little complicated,’ and Clarence would just play, play, play,” he added with a laugh.

“He could play anything — but he also always made any musician feel good about being there with him.”

Boyd began playing the piano at age 5, while living on his family's farm near Kellyville. One day his daddy took some cows to market — and came back with a piano.

“I tried playing it with one finger, and it was simple,” Boyd said in 1997. “Then I decided to try it with two fingers, one hand and then both hands.”

At 6, he played at a country church. His career evolved to the point where he was playing with some of the biggest names in the music business.

He was inducted into the Western Swing Music Society of the Southwest’s Hall of Fame in 2003, into the Pioneers of Western Swing Society Hall of Fame in 1997 and into the Western Swing Hall of Fame in 1996. He also often performed with his son, Dewayne Boyd, who’s established a career himself on bass.