Duffy Boyd

A Treasure of Southern West Virginia I live three doors down from Duffy, and on quiet mornings when I walk the dog past his house, I often hear him playing the sweetest banjo music. It drifts through the porch boards and out into the street, unhurried and warm, the kind of sound that makes you slow your steps without realizing it. There’s something about the timing of his rolls. They never fall into the mechanical rat-a-tat that made the banjo famous. His rolls are sweeter, rounder, each one settling neatly into the next until the whole line feels like a single piece of music. Line up a hundred banjo players, blindfold me, and I could walk straight to Duffy every time. Duffy was born Darryl Edwrd Boyd, named after Darryl Zanuck, an early movie producer. His father dubbed him Duffy after the old radio show “Duffy’s Tavern.” His mother, however, was never fond of the name. Duffy came to the banjo late—his early twenties—but he grew up surrounded by sound. In C