Another guy with a hat and a walrus moustache who has paid his dues in keeping the old songs alive. The storytelling, hard-rambling “hillbilly-bluesman,” Roy Book Binder, travels the country with his funky motor home as the contemporary version of the itinerant bluesman. Who knows how many miles he’s traveled over the last fifty years. He likes to tell stories in his unique drawl, about anything and everything, like about how his marriage broke up because he’s always on the road, living the life of a transient bluesman. He learned his blues from the Reverend Gary Davis (along with so many lucky young musicians who happened to be around NYC in the mid-60s) and Pink Anderson (check out Pink’s Folkways records).
The modern-day retro songster keeps the Piedmont tradition of his teachers alive and is fun all around- both live and on record. The consummate and enthralling entertainer is another guy who actually deserves the title “living legend”. Oh, the stories he can tell. He’ll tell them in his songs, in-between the songs, before and after his songs and leading up to the story he’ll tell you, he’ll tell you one that we wanted to tell you– but won’t.
Not only is Book Binder a terrific guitarist in the Piedmont tradition, he is a true songster with a giant repertoire; he is virtually a walking encyclopedia of folk music. He ventures across the spectrum of old-time folk with a seemingly endless song list, although in fair warning, he will recycle his jokes. Book Binder is fundamentally a blues & Ragtime rooted troubadour and one of the last great characters in a land where the culture that he represents, a heritage that traces straight back to the turn of the 19th to 20th century minstrels, is almost lost. He is so much fun.
Recommended Starter:
“Live at the Fur Peace Station” is a fine introduction to this artist. The live recording combines his witty, dry humor and storytelling with some great blues renditions.
