Joe Boyd
|
|
Joe Boyd (born August 5, 1942) is an American record producer.
He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He first became involved in music promoting blues artists while a student at Harvard University. He made his first visit to Britain in 1964 and returned the following year to establish an overseas office of Elektra Records. He eventually settled in London.
He became best-known for his work with British folk and folk rock artists, including the Incredible String Band, Martin Carthy, Nick Drake, John Martyn, Fairport Convention and Richard Thompson. Some of these were produced by his own production company, Witchseason. He also co-founded London's UFO Club and worked with UFO regulars Pink Floyd (producing their first single "Arnold Layne") and the Soft Machine.
Boyd returned to the States in the 1970s, assembling footage for the eponymous film documentary on Jimi Hendrix (1973) and producing records by Maria Muldaur and Kate and Anna McGarrigle among others. He went on to found his own Hannibal label (now a part of Rykodisc) which released records by the likes of Richard Thompson and various discs of so-called world music. Boyd also produced R.E.M.'s third album Fables of the Reconstruction (1985), and records by Billy Bragg and 10,000 Maniacs.