Singer and guitarist Roy Book Binder, a longtime favorite on America’s folk music circuit and a three-decade resident of St. Petersburg, died Tuesday after a long illness. He was 82.
A raconteur and storyteller, Book Binder was renowned for his “Carolina style” acoustic guitar fingerpicking on blues, old-time country and ragtime songs. From the 1960s to the 1990s, he was playing 200 one-nighters every year, touring the country in a tricked-out sleeper van. He was also known for his dry onstage humor.
“You know, I created my life and I live it,” he said in a 2021 Catalyst interview, “instead of the life I was born into. Nobody was actually born into it except Hank Williams Jr., bless his heart.”…