Gene Boyd

Gene Boyd

Gene Boyd (r) trims a customer's hair between fiddle breaks at his Star Barber Shop on State Street in Bristol, Virginia as he has every Thursday morning for over 50 years.

Gene Boyd (Hickory Tree, Tenn.) realized his calling while serving in the Navy during World War II. It was a very roundabout way of becoming a barber, but that is a story only Boyd can tell best. Thursday morning has been the time to drop by his Star Barbershop on West State Street in Bristol, Virginia, for the last fifty years. Get trimmed as you listen to the great bluegrass music of the friends who meet to jam every week. Don't be surprised if Boyd takes up his fiddle for a tune or two. He began playing bluegrass around age 10 and performed with such local groups as the Holston Valley Gang, the Boys from Hickory Tree and Leon Kiser and the Holston Mountain Boys. Throughout the summer months, Boyd also hosts an outdoor jam in front of The Birthplace of Country Music Mural on State Street every Tuesday night. In February of 1998, Boyd was honored with a BCMA Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication to furthering bluegrass music in the area.