![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hillbilly-Blues-Cats-Book-Binder-300x300.jpeg\")
Along with Tampa blues harmonica player David \u201cRock Bottom\u201d York and bassist Billy Ochoa, Book Binder released The Hillbilly Blues Cats in 1992. He made more than a dozen albums under his own name.<\/p>\nSinger and guitarist Roy Book Binder, a longtime favorite on America\u2019s folk music circuit and a three-decade resident of St. Petersburg, died Tuesday after a long illness. He was 82.<\/p>\n
A raconteur and storyteller, Book Binder was renowned for his \u201cCarolina style\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, I created my life and I live it,\u201d he said in a 2021 Catalyst interview, \u201cinstead of the life I was born into. Nobody was actually born into it except Hank Williams Jr., bless his heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said his longtime friend and fellow road warrior, the Rev. Billy C. Wirtz: \u201cWe shared dozens of your favorite old gospel singer, blues singer stories that we don\u2019t tell the general public, and just the general intimacy that comes from two guys that have given their lives to entertain the masses with this music that we both looked at once upon a time and said this is good and it deserves to not be forgotten.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had some great stories. I\u2019m proud to say he was impressed at some of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was born in Queens, New York as Paul Roy Bookbinder, and served in the United States Navy.<\/p>\n
In his 20s he met legendary bluesman Rev. Gary Davis, who became his teacher and friend. He later formed a similarly symbiotic relationship with blues singer and songwriter Pink Anderson.<\/p>\n
Along with Tampa blues harmonica player David \u201cRock Bottom\u201d York and bassist Billy Ochoa, Book Binder released The Hillbilly Blues Cats in 1992. He made more than a dozen albums under his own name.<\/p>\n
Book Binder and his second wife, Nancy, had been married since 1999.<\/p>\n
In the conversation with the Catalyst, Book Binder said he never actually thought about becoming rich and famous.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got out of the Navy in \u201965, met Rev. Davis in \u201966 and dropped out of junior college to go on the road with him. I dropped my G.I. Bill. The dream was to make $100 a week playing the guitar.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd like the new wife always says, \u2018Well, you\u2019ve done it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Singer and guitarist Roy Book Binder, a longtime favorite on America\u2019s folk music circuit and a three-decade resident…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-177803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}