Jean Boyd, Western Swing historian, RIP

Jean Boyd, who documented the history of Western Swing through dozens of interviews with its practitioners, both renowned and obscure, died May 9, 2022, at the age of 74. Dr. Boyd was Emeritus Professor of Musicology at Baylor University.

Born in Fort Worth, Dr. Boyd began playing piano at the age of 5, with music quickly becoming her lifelong passion. She graduated from Baylor with a bachelor's degree in church music in 1970, followed two years later with her master's degree in music history. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Texas in 1985. She was an American Music Scholar and expert on Western Swing music, publishing three books and numerous periodicals on the subject, as well as presenting at countless events and professional meetings.

A beloved faculty member from 1972 until her retirement in 2020, Dr. Boyd was a passionate educator, and nearly every Baylor music major experienced her unique talent for bringing music history to life. Her obituary states, "She was a devoted teacher and colleague, but her true passion above all was her students. Her office door was always open, and it was her honor to serve as a teacher, mentor and advisor to her students throughout her tenure at Baylor." She also served as the sponsor of the Phi Xi chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon at the Baylor School of Music and was a member of the Faculty Senate for many years.

Dr. Boyd's love of music spread beyond the classroom. She was the organist and choir director at Zion Lutheran Church in McGregor from 1980-2016, where she used her talents to bring Scripture to life in the form of Easter musicals and choral productions.

Jean Boyd was one of the great scholars of Western Swing. She recorded interviews with dozens of musicians, many of which are available in audio and transcript form on the Baylor archive website. She distilled all this material into the book, The Jazz of the Southwest: An Oral History of Western Swing, and then followed it up with We're the Light Crust Doughboys from Burrus Mill, an oral history of the band launched by Bob Wills and Milton Brown, and Dance All Night, a book on "the history and music of those bands that did not garner national fame, but were local sensations to thousands of southwesterners hungry for diversion and good dancing during the depression and World War II."

In 2016, Dr. Boyd and I corresponded briefly, in response to a note of appreciation for her work, and she told me about her next project, a look at the modern day practitioners of western swing. I was able to point her to some Bay Area musicians and bands I had heard during trips to the region (e.g. Richard Chon and the Saddle Cats, Toshio Hirano, the Heel Draggers, the West Nile Ramblers, the Lone Star Retrobates). She was looking for a driver to go out with her to interview some of these musicians and asked if I'd be interested. It would have been fascinating, but I had to say no. (I was going to see my son perform with the National Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and then spend a few months in Australia.)

Her faculty page says, "Dr. Boyd is currently working on her fourth western-swing book, which will document and explain the spread of western swing all over the United States, to Canada, Australia, and parts of Europe. Dr. Boyd is on Research Leave for the 2019-2020 year." I hope that someone can turn the research she began into a published book.

Richard Chon commented: "Bobby Black and I got to sit down with Jean a few years back and record an interview for her Western Swing oral history project. I'm very saddened to hear of her passing. It seems quite premature." Here is the audio of that interview and the transcript.

This link is to a search for all of the recordings and transcripts in the Baylor Western Swing Oral History Project, conducted by Jean Boyd and David Stricklin. Dr. David Stricklin, a historian, is the son of Texas Playboys pianist Al Stricklin.

Earlier BatesLine mentions of Prof. Jean Boyd:

• November 2008: Bob Wills on NPR: Prof. Boyd and Douglas Green "Ranger Doug" interviewed for NPR documentary on Bob Wills and Western Swing
• January 2011: Tommy Duncan 100th birthday: Jean Boyd interviewed Glynn Duncan, Tommy's younger brother
• September 2012: Johnny Cuviello, "Texas Drummer Boy," RIP: Prof. Boyd interviewed the Texas Playboys drummer in 1993
• January 2016: The oral history of Western Swing: A review of Prof. Boyd's first book, which led to the correspondence mentioned above.

(The Baylor archive links in the linked articles all need to be cleaned up, as Baylor's cataloging system has changed.)

Published on Facebook May 23, 2022, published here, slightly extended, at BatesLine, May 23, 2025. This was a FB post that should have been a blog entry, and it popped up in my memories, so I am publishing it here three years belatedly.