RIP: Roy Book Binder
(October 5, 1943 – March 3, 2026)
Roy Book Binder: Another Man Done A Full Go Round
By Bob Carlin
Roy Book Binder: Another Man Done A Full Go Round
By Bob Carlin
Roy Book Binder—singer, songwriter, bluesman and storyteller supreme—has, in the words of the old gospel song, crossed over the river at the age of 82. From humble beginnings in Queens, NY listening to rhythm ’n blues and rock ’n roll on records on the radio and at the famous holiday showcases presented by Allen Freed at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater. The entertainer known variously as the Travelin’ Man, The Book, and Roy Book Binder, has spent the last 60 years bringing his knowledge and reverence for the old bluesmen to audiences around the United States, the British Isles, Ireland, Australia, Norway and Canada. In the process, he has mentored new generations of musicians and instrument builders.
“Sing those songs to as many people as [you can] and tell them that Pink Anderson is an old man and can’t play guitar anymore, but he used to.” – Pink Anderson
Roy utilized an early 1960s stint in the United States Navy to obtain his first guitar and attend college in Providence, Rhode Island on the GI bill. Book’s performing side hustle and interactions with fellow enthusiasts Dave Newell and Paul Geremia led to his move to New York City, where he played at Greenwich Village open mics hosted by Dave Van Ronk and took lessons from the Reverend Gary Davis. When the singing street preacher needed a companion for an upcoming tour, Roy ditched school to learn the ropes of life on the road. This first-hand experience with Davis and other pre-War bluesman such as Pink Anderson and Bill Williams opened the portal for Roy Bookbinder’s life-long pursuit of music.
In 1972, Adelphi Records issued Travelin’ Man, Roy’s first full-
length platter featuring songs he had learned from original 78rpm recordings as well as first hand in his lessons and travels. This was followed by thirteen additional album issues for Blue Goose, Flying Fish, the largest independent label Rounder, as well as on his own Peg Leg Records.
“For Sale: Airstream motor home. 1,650,000 original miles. Only used by bluesman for commuting to gigs, casinos and fishing holes.” Roy BB
Around the same time as his Adelphi release, weary of the circuit of couches and mattresses on a floor, Roy purchased his first motor home. This choice proved crucial to his survival in the music business, giving him a dressing area and hotel room combined with an on-the-road sanctuary.
Although The Book has spent most of his stage career as a solo act, a chance meeting at a folk festival in New Jersey in the mid-1970s with teenaged fiddler Karl Fats Kaplin brought about a collaboration on stage and vinyl (Git-Fiddle Shuffle and Ragtime Millionaire). Once Roy’s partnership with Kaplin ended, Bookbinder still recognized and surrounded himself with fine musicians in the studio. These included legendary western swing pianist Knocky Parker, Nashville Cats Stuart Duncan on fiddle and dobro wizard Jerry Douglas, and Roy’s harmonica-playing brother-in-law David Rock Bottom York.
“I’m still kind of a goober act.” Roy BB
His persistence resulted in new opportunities with fresh audiences. During the 1980s, Book became a favorite of Ralph Emery on his Nashville Now television program, appearing on the broadcast around thirty times. He related to journalist Jim Newsom that “I didn’t do a damn thing different. I wore baggier pants and suspenders and a bigger hat, but I did the same twelve songs [as before].” It was also on the Nashville Network where Book Binder took on the three-part name of Roy Book Binder. “You know those Nashville country people,” Roy continued, “either have one name or three, so I went with three.”
Another way to keep your face and music in front of audiences was to open for more popular acts. This included associations with Bonnie Raitt, John Hartford and Ray Charles, among others.
In 1988, Bookbinder was given the opportunity to program a presentation for one of the biggest festivals of Americana music in the United States, Merlefest. The concert, which Roy titled The Greatest Acoustic Blues Show on Earth, will celebrate its 39th anniversary this year, sadly without its founder in attendance. The festival has allowed The Book to honor some of his predecessors and contemporaries in the blues scene, as well as to promote up and coming talent. This mentorship has included Todd Albright, Tom Feldman, Muireann Bradley and the Reverend Robert Jones.
Roy’s love of vintage acoustic guitars, especially those of the 1920s-1940s, led to his collaboration with like-minded luthier Tony Klassen. Before his untimely passing, Klassen and The Book designed a signature line of three Roy Book Binder models featured by Roy for his performances.
Mentorship was one of Roy Book Binder’s greatest legacies. Back at the beginning of his career, to supplement his income from performing, Book Binder spent his summers playing his guitar and singing at arts camps for teenagers and his winters working at homes for wayward boys. That’s where I first met The Book (at Buck’s Rock camp, not a home). I was sixteen, Roy ten years older, when I caught sight of what appeared to be Buffalo Bill Cody with full Australian bush hat and facial hair, sitting under a tree playing a blonde Gibson-brand J-200 model guitar ala the Reverend Davis. We struck up a conversation; he later played me selections from the first Yazoo reissues of classic acoustic blues 78rpm records and I was hooked. Informal lessons followed, with a resulting life-long friendship over our mutual careers in music.
After Roy became an established entity, his outreach extended to a series of five videos for Homespun Tapes, and 20 years of residencies teaching at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch.
“LTSGL.” Roy BB
On the 2001 release Singer Songwriter Bluesman, his second album for his own label, Roy Book Binder featured only his original compositions. This was the beginning of another attempt by The Book to expand his audience. As a result, Kaukonen, Book’s boss at the Fur Peace Ranch, more frequently finding himself sharing the spotlight with Roy, adapted two of Book’s compositions. In 2007, Jorma noted that “Nobody writes in the [blues] idiom better than Roy Book Binder.” At that time, Kaukonen covered Roy’s tribute to the Reverend Gary Davis, “The Preacher Picked the Guitar.” Along with Tommy Emmanuel, Jorma also recorded “Another Man Done A Full Go Round.”
Throughout his career, The Book, always humble, promoted himself primarily as a singer/songwriter/storyteller and a guitarist second. Roy would be the first to admit that other pickers with whom he shared his history, such as the late Woody Mann, Peter Berley and Ari Eisinger, were much more accomplished technicians. Bookbinder, however, was more concerned with the stories in the music—the telling of a good yarn, if you will—and in entertaining as wide an audience as possible. In his later years, one of Roy’s favorite sayings was that “It’s better to be lucky than talented, smart or good looking (LTSGL),” and he attributed his success to taking advantage of breaks that presented themselves in the course of his hard work.
In the fall of 2025, Roy ended his yearly touring and headed to Florida, where Bookbinder had wintered since the late 1980s. Unfortunately, once home, his health rapidly deteriorated. By the end of February, The Book was in hospice, where he passed away March 3, 2026.
Roy Book Binder will be remembered as a life-long lover of baseball and, after the Giants left New York City, a follower of the New York Yankees. He loved motor homes, golden-age acoustic guitars, fishing, casinos, expresso coffee, Florida, Borsalino hats, vintage clothes, Pendleton jackets, burnt bacon, his audiences and fans, and, most of all, his wife Nancy, who survives him. Roy also leaves behind brothers Michael and Paul, SIL Liz, nephews Adam and Ben, niece Sarah and the extended Bassuk family.
Funeral will be private, celebration of life will be announced soon.
Jim Newsom’s “Travelin’ Man” in PortFolio Weekly, November 29, 2005; Merlefest;
Bill DeYoung’s “Return of the road warrior.”
St. Pete blues guitar legend Roy Book Binder dies (Stpetecatalyst.com)
Lessons Learned from Thirteen Years on the Road freshairarchive.org
Kyle Orla Stringworks YouTube page;
RIP: Roy Book Binder
(October 5, 1943 – March 3, 2026)
