PRESS PHOTOS
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PRESS RELEASE
"Behind the humor lurks a musical master."
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
ROY BOOK BINDER, is a Blues Singing, guitar picking, song writing raconteur, and has been for the past 30 years! Roy has been interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air, featured on the Emmy award winning segment of the PBS TV series EGG Art in America, and appeared more than 30 times on Ralph Emory's highly regarded TV series Nashville Now. Book Binder has been included in the "Big Book of Blues" as well as the "Blues Who's Who"!! Roy has been continually touring across America in his tour bus, which has been his home for the last thirty years, as well as performing internationally.
Back in the early 1960s, Roy learned his craft from the legendary blind street singer, Reverend Gary Davis, who was thrust into the national spotlight when Peter, Paul, and Mary recorded his song "If I Had My Way." After two years of traveling the folk-blues circuit with his mentor, Roy struck out on his own. Along the way, he befriended Pink Anderson, an old Carolina medicine show performer (who by the way was the "Pink" in Pink Floyd, while Floyd Council, another Carolina bluesman, was the Floyd). Before Anderson passed away, he gave Roy all his songs, and instructed him to please keep his name alive.
Over the years, Roy Book Binder has befriended quite a cast of characters in his travels, including three peg-legged dancers, and a 90 year old classic blues singer with a sparkling smile, who went by the name of Diamond Teeth Mary (Bessie Smith's half sister).
Roy has toured with Bonnie Raitt, Hot Tuna, and J.J. Cale. He has been invited to many festivals including: The National StoryTelling Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Chicago Blues Festival, and MerleFest where he has hosted the acoustic blues stage for the past ten years.
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© 1999-2002, ROY BOOK BINDER, P.O. BOX 314, POLK CITY, FL 33868
