Russell Stephen Boyd was born in Houston, TX, raised in small-town East Texas, and has lived in the Austin area for over a decade. After learning to play guitar from friends as a teenager and plinking around on the piano, he went to Stephen F. Austin State University to major, uselessly, in Computer Information Systems and Radio/TV.

At age 21, he began playing acoustic guitar in bars and restaurants around Nacogdoches, TX, playing requests and original songs. This quickly progressed to playing around Texas and having enough shows each week to make a college students’ living. After graduating and moving to Austin in 2001, Russell met some piano players who taught him to actually play the piano and how a piano bar show is done. The militant training dumped him into doing shows within just a few months. Years of performing each night and building a rapport with several talented drummers increased the quality a show that is still improving. The two shows Russell inherited from others led to an increased interest from other venues across the state and occasionally outside of Texas.