COUNTY LIFE
Making his own music: Skeeter Boyd handcrafts, and plays fiddles
BY DEBBIE DUNLAP
Bill “Skeeter” Boyd makes his own music. Literally.
The 79-year-old fourth-generation Forestburg native has not only taught himself how to play the fiddle, but also to hand-craft fiddles.
Born to a large family with a long legacy of musicians, Boyd has played the mandolin since the age of nine.
About four years ago he found a “really good deal” on a fiddle, so he bought it. Having never played a fiddle, he just let it sit for a couple of months until friends informed him they needed a fiddler to play in their band for an upcoming performance. His reply to them was that he knew some fiddlers he could ask.
“They said they didn’t want someone I knew,” he recalls. “They wanted me. Well, I didn’t know how to play a fiddle, so I went home and started working. I had eight days to learn it, and I spent a lot of hours practicing that week. But I did it.”
Read the full feature in your weekend Bowie News. Pictured, Skeeter Boyd plays the fiddle, that he also built himself. (Photo by Debbie Dunlap)
The 22nd annual July Jam returns on July 27 to the Bowie Community Center West Hall, 413 Pelham Street in Bowie.
There will be a “chickin’ pickin’ fiddling fun time” as guests will be entertained by amazing fiddling tunes and enjoying a chicken meal with delicious homemade jams because it wouldn’t be July Jam without it.
Tickets are just $15 with the event starting at 6 p.m. The funds raised help provide awards for the Championship Fiddler Competition during Chicken and Bread Days Heritage Festival on Oct. 5.
This attracts talented musicians from all over to visit downtown Bowie to test their fiddling skills on stage in the Bowie Fire Hall on Oct. 5.
Along with the live fiddling entertainment, come hungry and be ready to outbid your neighbors at the silent auction or just stop by for a great meal, fellowship and soak in the air conditioning.
Read the full story in the mid-week Bowie News.
The Nocona City Council met this past week making plans for budget and tax rate hearings.
Councilors received a brief update on the 2024-25 budget preparations. City Secretary Revell Hardison said the final proposal is almost complete and they now await the arrival of the no-new revenue tax rate that will be reviewed by the council after it is calculated by the tax collector.
The proposal includes a tax rate increase of about 3% similar to last year and there will be a small increase in water and sewer rates, but Hardison said the final crunch on those will come after the tax rate projections arrive.
Read the full story in the mid-week Bowie News.
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