Roy Book Binder - Bookeroo! (1988)

> The album

Ramblin' Roy's swinging hillbilly blues

For our readers not deeply familiar with the subtleties of English-American language, "bookeroo" has been jokingly coined from the word "buckaroo" meaning "cowboy" or "cowhand", and derived from the Spanish word "vaquero" used under the mid-19th century in Tejas (Texas) and the south-west territories (New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Southern California). This being clarified, don't go too fast and conclude that Roy Book Binder is a country & western musician, you'd get it all wrong.

With Pink Anderson ►

No, Binder's stuff is vintage Piedmont style folk & blues ragtime guitar (sometimes adapted to "hillbilly" and bluegrass material), a style that he learned in the early 1960s straight from Rev. Gary Davis and Pink Anderson.

With Rev. Gary Davis ▼

Born in Queens (New York) in 1943 as Paul Roy Bookbinder, RBB sailed around the world on an aircraft carrier with the U.S. Navy in the beginning of the 1960s : he legendarily bought his first guitar in Naples (Italy), heard his first Lightnin' Hopkins record in Marseilles (France) and read his first Jack Kerouac novels while cruising the North Atlantic. In 1965 he landed back in New York's Greenwich Village in time to catch the folk revival and befriended folk singer Dave Van Ronk, met Rev. Gary Davis, became his student, even working as his driver and touring companion for some times. Later on, he met an old South Carolina medicine show performer named Pink Anderson. He learned as much of both men songs, stories and guitar styles as he could.

His first album came out in 1971 and its title, "Travelin' Man", already symbolized a major aspect of RBB's personality. In the late 1970's, after a three-year duo partnership with fiddler Fats Kaplin and eager for the open road, he bought an Airstream motor-home and for about the next 20 years lived in it, touring the country coast to coast, rambling from clubs to coffeehouses and festivals along the way. "Twenty plus years of living full time in 'the bus' make for an interesting take on what's what and who's who", he commented once.

After leaving the sedentary life, it took him a decade before entering again a recording studio, in Nashville in 1988 : the result is "Bookerro!", a perfect demonstration of his unique brand of swinging hillbilly country blues and of his storytelling talent as a writer and a singer, released in a sleeve cover illustrated by photos of RBB in his motor-home.

With his thick mustache, metal-circled spectacles and broad-brimmed hat, RBB, now 78, looks like a modern-day Mark Twain ! He continues to tour and has at heart to transmit his craft through instructional books and DVDs, or workshops (like at Jorma Kaukonen's famous Fur Peace Ranch in Ohio).

Mark Twain is back! ►

In "Bookerroo!", his acoustic songs are enhanced by a backing band featuring bass (Mark Hembree) and percussions (Kenny Malone), the excellent dobro guitar of Jerry Douglas, the mandolin and fiddle of Stuart Duncan, and the harmonica Phil Gazell on a couple of tracks...
In his very personal covers of other authors' works ― Louisiana bluesman Jesse Thomas ("Friend Like Me"), folk-blues artist Paul Geremia ("Somethin' Different"), country singers Merle Haggard ("Nobody Knows I'm Hurtin'" and Jimmie Rodgers ("Waiting for a Train") or soul performers Percy Mayfield & Ray Charles ("Tell Me How Do You Feel") ― as in his own creations and most of all adaptations of oldies, RBB shows his skill for tasteful arrangements and his liking for exploring musical styles from different horizons (see detailed credits of each song below).

If Piedmont finger-picking guitar is the core of his trade, he also pecks here and there in the traditional repertoire  of American folk music styles : blues and ragtime, hokum and old Dixie jazz, but also country, hillbilly and, particularly here, bluegrass. Mr Binder is an American folk music encyclopedia all by himself, not talking about his amazing guitar playing skill and storytelling talent. 

This album has something of a road-book(eroo !) gathering humourous memories of a rambling life, be they personnal, like the talking folk blues "Gonna Get Myself A Motorhome", or be they "borrowed" from fellow songsters : the swinging blues rags "Friend Like Me", "Nobody Knows I'm Hurtin'" and "Tell Me How Do You Feel", the hilarious booze song "Gin Done Done It", the hillbilly "I'm Goin' Home", the rockabilly version of "Good Gal", the hobo ballad "Waiting for a Train", the double-entendre "Cigarette Blues" or the traveling song "My Road Is Rough And Rocky".

The whole package is so nice and jubilant that you can't manage to stop playing it back and back again, and it sounds better each time. ■

Detailed credits

Merle Haggard ►

→ 01. Friend Like Me (written by Jesse Thomas) Bass: Mark Hembree - Dobro: Jerry Douglas - Percussion: Kenny Malone - National Steel resonator guitar: Roy Book Binder.
→ 02. Gonna Get Myself A Motorhome (written by Roy Book Binder & Tom Moore) Bass: Mark Hembree - Dobro: Jerry Douglas - Fiddle: Stuart Duncan - Guitar: Roy Book Binder - Percussion: Kenny Malone.
→ 03. Somethin' Different (written by Paul Geremia) Bass: Mark Hembree - Dobro: Jerry Douglas - Fiddle: Stuart Duncan - Guitar: Roy Book Binder - Rhythm Guitar: Russ Barenberg.
→ 04. Mississippi Blues (arranged & adapted by Roy Book Binder from a Willie Brown recording for the Library of Congress) Bass: Mark Hembree - Guitar: Roy Book Binder.

◄ Jimmie Rodgers
→ 05. Gin Done Done It (arranged & adapted by Roy Book Binder from the lyrics of a 1920s song by 'Pigmeat' Pete & Cat 'Juice' Charlie) Guitar: Roy Book Binder.
→ 06. I'm Goin' Home (written by Roy Book Binder - inspired by Rev. Gary Davis' "I Will Be Alright Someday") Bass: Mark Hembree - Dobro: Jerry Douglas - Guitar: Roy Book Binder - Harmonica: Phil Gazell - Mandolin: Stuart Duncan.
→ 07. Good Gal (arranged & adapted by Roy Book Binder from a 1929 song of Charlie Spand & Blind Blake) Bass: Mark Hembree - Dobro: Jerry Douglas - Guitar: Roy Book Binder - Percussion: Kenny Malone.
→ 08. Nobody Knows I'm Hurtin' (written by Merle Haggard - first released on his album "I Love Dixie Blues") Guitar: Roy Book Binder.
→ 09. Waitin' For A Train (written by Jimmie Rodgers) Bass: Mark Hembree - Dobro: Jerry Douglas - Fiddle: Stuart Duncan - Guitar: Roy Book Binder - Percussion: Kenny Malone.

Percy Mayfield & Ray Charles ►

→ 10. Cigarette Blues (arranged & adapted by Roy Book Binder from a 1938 song by Bo Carter) Bass: Edgar Meyer - Guitar: Roy Book Binder.
→ 11. My Road Is Rough And Rocky (arranged & adapted by Roy Book Binder from 'Cryin' Sam Collins) Dobro: Jerry Douglas - Fiddle & Mandolin: Stuart Duncan - Guitar: Roy Book Binder - Harmonica: Phil Gazell - Percussion: Kenny Malone.
→ 12. Tell Me How Do You Feel (written by Percy Mayfield & Ray Charles) Bass: Mark Hembree - Guitar: Roy Book Binder - Mandolin: Stuart Duncan - Percussion: Kenny Malone.

Interviews

► Recent live stream on Godfrey Daniels' Live From 4th Street : https://youtu.be/2FHFoLWWbno

► About Rev. Gary Davis : https://youtu.be/zZg_71cOPc4

Videos
► At the Suwannee Spring Reunion in Live Oak, FL :
→ in March 2022 : https://youtu.be/LsmN1iObOMI
→ in 2017 : https://youtu.be/pfTkVr62ieQ
► Live stream concert at the New Orleans Jazz Museum (skip first 5 mns) : https://youtu.be/4gYjoFFX2Ts
► Live stream from Club Passim in Cambridge, MA (skip first 2 and ½ mns) : https://youtu.be/iHzXVbZnAqM

► At the Fogartyville Community Media & Arts Center
in Sarasota, FL :
→ unknown date : https://youtu.be/cutBDKnvJLs
→ in 2017 (10-part playlist) : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGuKplPlhw0JS4Yklpj4CcgT6JKW4P7QE
→ in 2016  (10-part playlist) : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGuKplPlhw0LtF2TEaDMNc2cpd32yN1ra
► At the Woody Guthrie Festival 2015 : https://youtu.be/2D8EnSSCzyE
► At Folk Alliance in 2014 : https://youtu.be/MrsShJKDYmw

► At the Acoustic Guitar Magazine studio in 2013 : https://youtu.be/PO-YAYQ8-Nw
► "Mississippi Blues" at the Side Door in St. Petersburg, FL, in 2010 : https://youtu.be/GyloYh2RtJQ
► "Travelin' Man" and banter at New Bedford Summerfest, New Bedford, MS, in 2009 : https://youtu.be/4CWo7agezAs
► Funny show at the Nova Scotia, Bristol (UK), in 2007 : https://youtu.be/GkaebVGg1Ik
► On the "Horses Sing None of It" cable television program in 1997 : https://youtu.be/OfjnVzNGkV4
► In Laureana di Borrello (Italy) in 1995 : https://youtu.be/rVh0c5pwFiU

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