Born Roy Alan Bookbinder in Queens, New York on October 5, 1943, he took up the guitar following a tour of duty in the U.S. Navy, after acquiring his first instrument in Italy and returning to New York. A student and friend of the Reverend Gary Davis, whom he met in 1966 and with whom he also toured during the late 1960s, Book Binder launched his career during the folk and blues revival in New York’s Greenwich Village, where he was a frequent participant in open mics hosted by Dave Van Ronk, The Mayor of MacDougal Street, In the early 1970s,Book Binder recorded Travelin’ Man, his first solo acoustic album on Adelphi Records, left his abode in the Village, and began rambling around the world. A real road warrior and contemporary itinerant bluesman, he traveled extensively across the U.S. in a motor home, while also playing festivals and other gigs around Canada, Europe and Australia. The Travelin’ Man and The Book, as he was alternately known, also joined Bonnie Raitt on an east coast tour and toured with Jorma Kaukonen (who recorded two of Book Binder’s songs – “The Preacher Picked the Guitar” and “Another Man Done A Full Go Round,” and invited him to teach guitar at his Fur Peace Ranch — which he did for some 20 years). During the late 1980s, Book Binder made nearly 30 appearances on Nashville Now with Ralph Emory on cable TV’s The Nashville Network (TNN).

A resident of St. Petersburg, Florida, Book Binder was a consummate entertainer known for his distinctive fingerpicking style and slide arrangements, along with his captivating storytelling. His engaging concert and festival performances were punctuated with humorous anecdotes and personal stories.

“I don’t play gigs in places where I wouldn’t go socially,” Book Binder once told thecountryblues.com. “I don’t play the bar blues scene. It’s not my thing. I am just a folk player. Until I started my own label, I didn’t know you could make money from selling records. I had recorded plenty of times, but I never got paid by the labels. So I started my own.”

Although Book Binder helped to keep old-time folk songs and the Piedmont blues tradition alive through the decades and had a vast repertoire, he also wrote and recorded his own songs. Beginning in the late 1990s, he released albums on his own independent label (Peg Leg Records) after having previously recorded for Adelphi, Blue Goose, Flying Fish, Kicking Mule, and Rounder Records.

Book Binder — who died just days after one of his acoustic blues and roots music contemporaries, John Hammond — leaves behind his second wife, Nancy, whom he married in 1999, his brothers Michael and Paul, and a vast repertoire of music and memories.

Officially launched in 1983 by the late Bob Feldman after meeting Iowa-based singer-songwriter Greg Brown, Red House has been home to a number of notable folk, roots and Americana artists. In addition to Brown, these include The Cactus Blossoms, Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka, Lucy Kaplansky, Jorma Kaukonen, The Wailin’ Jennys, and Robin and Linda Williams, among others.

Under Feldman’s guidance, up to his untimely death in 2006, Red House received indie music awards, numerous Grammy Award nominations and a Grammy in 1995 for Ramblin’ Jack Elliot’s album, South Coast. Feldman himself became widely recognized as a leading advocate for roots music and a leader in the independent label community.

Compass co-founders Alison Brown and Garry West are longtime admirers of Red House and fans of its artist roster. Brown, a Grammy Award-winning musician, and West, a bassist and producer, first met Feldman at a conference in 1995 — shortly after launching their own label. Both were struck by his transparency and willingness to share his inside knowledge of the business, and over the next ten years their mentoring relationship evolved into a mutual friendship, with Feldman and West often serving as advisors and sounding boards for each other.

“When we first launched Compass, we were really learning the business from the ground up,” said West. “Of all the people from whom we would seek advice, Bob was always the most straightforward and would tell it like it was. His support was immeasurable, and we were extremely grateful for his willingness to take us under his wing. I have to admit it gave me a great feeling of accomplishment when, over time, Bob started calling me to compare notes.”

Adds Brown: “It is incredibly meaningful to us to be able to carry Red House’s legacy into the future. We are really excited to work with such a fine roster of artists and are committed to keeping Red House’s brand of folk and Americana music alive.”

Red House owner Beth Friend, who has kept the label going since Feldman’s death, said, “It’s a great accomplishment, and I couldn’t be prouder or more grateful. We have believed in and worked hard for every artist on the label, and it’s been our privilege to — as Bob used to say as he’d leave for work in the morning — ‘bring music to the people’. “ She acknowledged that selling the iconic label was “a very personal and very difficult decision for me to make,” noting: “It’s simply time for me to bring this chapter of my life to a close and move on. Compass founders Garry West and Alison Brown were friends of Bob’s and have often commented on how his mentorship helped them in the early days of launching their own label. I know they will bring a level of care to the Red House imprint that I don’t believe I could have found in another buyer.”

In an interview with Billboard earlier this month, Gorka, an acclaimed singer-songwriter whose next album is slated for release in the first quarter of 2018, expressed hope that Red House will continue to be a great label. “I understand the economics and I think Compass is the best place to go,” he told the magazine. “Compass has a lot of artists I admire and respect, and I think Red House will be in good company.”

Compass Records’ catalog features more than 600 titles from a diverse roster of artists that includes Beausoleil, Colin Hay, The Infamous Stringdusters, Shannon McNally, Solas, and bluegrass luminaries Claire Lynch and Bobby Osborne, among others. It is also home to two seminal Irish music catalogs, Green Linnet and Mulligan Records, both acquired in the mid-2000s.

A platform for luminaries and rising stars, the annual conference is the world’s largest gathering of the folk music industry and community. Folk Alliance International’s Official Showcases are jury-selected nightly mini-concerts featuring emerging artists and touring legends from around the world. The performances are 30 minutes in length and are held concurrently on ten full-production stages throughout the host hotel over three nights.

More than 800 artists/acts applied for the opportunity to perform for hundreds of festival and venue bookers, agents, managers, labels, media, and music industry representatives. The curated showcases feature artists representing a diverse array of folk genres including Appalachian, Americana, bluegrass, blues, Cajun, Celtic, global roots, Indie-folk, indigenous, Latin, old time, traditional, singer-songwriter, spoken word, and every imaginable fusion.

Breakthrough artists from previous conferences include The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Darlingside, David Francey, John Fullbright, Kaia Kater, Lake Street Dive, The Milk Carton Kids, Nickel Creek, The Stray Birds, Valerie June, The Waifs, and The Wailin’ Jennys. Past showcase performances have also included guest appearances by Judy Collins, Béla Fleck, Rita Coolidge, Ron Sexsmith, Archie Fisher, Peggy Seeger, and more.

Bringing together musicians, educators, and music industry professionals from around the world, the Folk Alliance International Conference is known for its community atmosphere, business and networking opportunities, and as a hotspot for discovering new talent.

The 2018 conference will feature presentations by Mary Chapin Carpenter and Richard Thompson, the Louis Jay Meyers Music Camp, the International Folk Music Awards, and the third annual Kansas City Folk Festival. Celebrating 30 years of community and song, the conference will YEARS OF COMMUNITY AND SONG, honor the first three decades of the organization’s growth and activity, as well as the broader story of folk music during that time.

Folk Alliance International (www.folk.org) is a Kansas City, MO-based nonprofit organization that seeks to nurture, engage and empower the international folk music community – traditional and contemporary, amateur and professional – through education, advocacy and performance.

Editor’s Note: This article is based on a news release issued by Folk Alliance International, on whose board of directors I serve. I’m also board president of the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA), one of its five regional affiliates, which holds it annual conference, Nov. 9-12, in Stamford, CT. I am not involved in the selection of Official Showcase artists.

Browne, a two-time Canadian Folk Music Awards Solo Artist of the Year and three-time Juno Awards nominee, features his personal interpretations of songs by Mississippi John Hurt, Fred McDowell, Skip James, Charley Patton and Blind Willie McTell, among others, on his new Borealis Records album. Closely following Browne’s release in terms of airplay were new albums by Neptune’s Car and Jorma Kaukonen.

The February 2015 FOLKDJ-L charts are based on 12,468 airplays from 134 different DJs. The number of reported spins (airplays) is shown in parentheses, while label and release dates appear in brackets. They are posted with permission on AcousticMusicScene.com.

Top Albums of February 2015

1: “Sliding Delta”, Michael Jerome Browne [Borealis, 1/15] (63)
2: The 45th Parallel, Neptune’s Car [neptunescar.com, 1/15] (62)
3: Ain’t In No Hurry, Jorma Kaukonen [Red House, 2/15] (61)
4: Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions, Robert Earl Keen [Dualtone,
2/15] (56)
5: Dreaming As I Do, Caroline Cotter [Bella Blue, new] (54)
6: Brotherhood, The Gibson Brothers [Rounder, 2/15] (51)
6: Looking Back: Our American Irish Souls, The Burns Sisters [Sisters,
new] (51)
6: Tillamook Burn, Lauren Sheehan And Zoe Carpenter [
laurensheehanmusic.com, 11/14] (51)
9: Pandemonium, Moors And McCumber [moorsandmccumber.com, 12/14] (49)
9: Trust,”The Levins [thelevinsmusic.com, 1/15] (49)
11: Chasing The Sun, The Sweet Lowdown [thesweetlowdown.ca, 11/14] (42)
12: A Bird In This World, Joel Mabus [Fossil, new] (41)
13: The Widening Gyre, Altan [Compass, 1/15] (40)
14: Lomax Project, Jayme Stone [Borealis, new] (36)
14: Straight Lines, Mike Agranoff [mikeagranoff.com, 11/14] (36)
16: Best Medicine, The Stray Birds [Yep Roc, 10/14] (35)
17: Shadows In The Night, Bob Dylan [Columbia, 1/15] (34)
18: Ionia, Lindsay Lou And The Flatbellys [lindsayloumusic.com, new] (32)
18: Tomorrow Is My Turn, Rhiannon Giddens [Nonesuch, new] (32)
20: Sit Down! Get Up! Get Out!, Barnstar! [Signature, 2/15] (30)
21: Kelly Bosworth, Kelly Bosworth [kellybosworth.com, 11/14] (29)
21: Redemption Road, Tom Paxton [Pax, new] (29)
21: Wage Love, Fred Gillen Jr [Dys, new] (29)
24: The Ballad Beyond, Jez Lowe [Tantobie, 11/14] (28)
24: The Nocturne Diaries, Eliza Gilkyson [Red House, 3/14] (28)
26: The Phosphorescent Blues, Punch Brothers [Nonesuch, 1/15] (27)
27: Dragonflies, Scott And Michelle Dalziel [Gatorbone, new] (26)
27: XVII, The Nields [Self, new] (26)
29: Blue Roses, Rachael Sage [MPress, 10/14] (25)
30: All Over The Map, The Better Halves [Self, 7/14] (23)
30: Boomtown, Tom Pacheco [Frogs Claw, 10/14] (23)
30: Wood, Wire & Words, Norman Blake [Plectraphone, 1/15] (23)
33: The Lazy Farmer, Flynn Cohen [Wepecket Island, 2013] (22)
34: Songs Around The Kitchen Table, David Llewellyn And Ida Kristin
[Norna, new] (21)
34: Terraplane, Steve Earle & The Dukes [New West, new] (21)
36: Lost On The River, The New Basement Tapes [Harvest, 11/14] (20)
36: Sterling Road, Cassie And Maggie [cassieandmaggie.com, 5/14] (20)
36: Wake, Nora Jane Struthers & The Party Line [Blue Pig, new] (20)
39: Lay It Down, Louise Mosrie [Zoe Cat, 10/14] (19)
39: Portraits, George Mann [Running Scared, 1/15] (19)
39: Reckless Skyline, Caitlin Canty [caitlincanty.com, 1/15] (19)
39: Swim, Alice Di Micele [Alice Otter, new] (19)
43: Black Beauty, Elana James [Snarf, new] (18)
43: Chasing Beauty, Ellis Paul [Black Wolf, 7/14] (18)
43: A History Of Ghosts, Bobtown [bobtownmusic.com, 11/14] (18)
46: Acoustic Rainbow 44, Various Artists [Poetman, new] (17)
46: Medicine, Drew Holcomb And The Neighbors [Magnolia, new] (17)
46: That Kind Of Girl, Amy Speace [Windbone, new] (17)
49: Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn, Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn
[Rounder, 10/14] (16)
49: Ceilings, Floors And Open Doors, Gwyneth Moreland [Self, 2014] (16)
49: Discovered: Live In Concert, Peter, Paul And Mary [Rhino, 11/14] (16)
49: Fee Fie Foh Fum, Flagship Romance [Gatorbone, new] (16)
49: A Reasonable Amount Of Trouble, Jesse Winchester [Appleseed, 9/14]
(16)
49: Tell ’em I’m Gone, Yusuf (Cat Stevens) [Legacy, 10/14] (16)
55: Blackbirds, Gretchen Peters [Scarlet Letter, 2/15] (15)
55: Bright Side Of Down, John Gorka [Red House, 3/14] (15)
55: Decade, Yellow Room Gang [Yellow Room, new] (15)
55: Inside Llewyn Davis, Various Artists [Nonesuch, 2013] (15)
55: A Time Long Gone, Charlie Mosbrook [Self, new] (15)
60: Georgia I’m Here, Joe Crookston [Milagrito, 4/14] (14)
60: Sweet Memories. . . Never Leave, Erynn Marshall And Carl Jones
[Dittyville, new] (14)
60: Waterproof, Robyn Landis [Brave Hearts, 10/14] (14)
60: You’re Home Now, Richard Berman [Self, 11/14] (14)
64: Two, Three, Four?, John And Sheila Ludgate [Self, 2014] (13)
64: Empty Pockets And A Troubled Mind, Rodney Rice [Moody Spring, 10/14] (13)
64: The Fretless, The Fretless [Self, 2/14] (13)
64: The Longing Road, Johnsmith [johnsmithmusic.com, 7/14] (13)
64: Mono, The Mavericks [Valory, new] (13)
64: Next Year People, Colin Hay [Compass, new] (13)
64: Thompson Family, Thompson Family [Concord, 11/14] (13)

Top Songs of February 2015

1. “Sliding Delta” (17)
by Michael Jerome Browne
from “Sliding Delta”
2. “Bella Blue” (15)
by Caroline Cotter
from “Dreaming As I Do”
2. “Clare To Here” (15)
by The Burns Sisters
from “Looking Back: Our American Irish Souls”
2. “Honey Baby Blues” (15)
by Lauren Sheehan And Zoe Carpenter
from “Tillamook Burn”
5. “The 45th Parallel” (12)
by Neptune’s Car
from “The 45th Parallel”
5. “Blue Sky Turned To Rust” (12)
by Neptune’s Car
from “The 45th Parallel”
7. “Corrina” (11)
by Lauren Sheehan And Zoe Carpenter
from “Tillamook Burn”
7. “Footprints In The Snow” (11)
by Robert Earl Keen
from “Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions”
7. “In The Wee Midnight Hours” (11)
by Lauren Sheehan And Zoe Carpenter
from “Tillamook Burn”
7. “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out” (11)
by Jorma Kaukonen
from “Ain’t In No Hurry”
7. “Trust” (11)
by The Levins
from “Trust”
7. “Waters” (11)
by Kelly Bosworth
from “Kelly Bosworth”
13. “Other Side Of The Mountain” (10)
by Jorma Kaukonen
from “Ain’t In No Hurry”
13. “Helpless” (10)
by Rachael Sage
from “Blue Roses”
15. “Best Medicine” (9)
by The Stray Birds
from “Best Medicine”
15. “Crack A Smile” (9)
by Moors And McCumber
from “Pandemonium”
15. “Ghost Of Joe Hill” (9)
by Fred Gillen Jr
from “Wage Love”
15. “Hot Corn, Cold Corn” (9)
by Robert Earl Keen
from “Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions”
15. “Love Song” (9)
by The Levins
from “Trust”
15. “Welcome Back To The Blues” (9)
by Joel Mabus
from “A Bird In This World”
21. “Ain’t In No Hurry” (8)
by Jorma Kaukonen
from “Ain’t In No Hurry”
21. “Road Song” (8)
by The Sweet Lowdown
from “Chasing The Sun”
21. “Birds And The Bees” (8)
by The Sweet Lowdown
from “Chasing The Sun”
21. “Brother Can You Spare A Dime” (8)
by Jorma Kaukonen
from “Ain’t In No Hurry”
21. “Dreaming As I Do” (8)
by Caroline Cotter
from “Dreaming As I Do”
21. “Emily Dickinson” (8)
by Neptune’s Car
from “The 45th Parallel”
21. “Get Up” (8)
by Caitlin Canty
from “Reckless Skyline”
21. “Hot Hands” (8)
by Lindsay Lou And The Flatbellys
from “Ionia”
21. “I Am Grateful For What I Have” (8)
by Sarah McQuaid
from “The Silver Lining”
21. “Laugh With Me” (8)
by The Levins
from “Trust”
21. “Lazy John” (8)
by Jayme Stone
from “Lomax Project”
21. “Mayor Of MacDougal Street” (8)
by Tom Paxton
from “Redemption Road”
21. “Shake Sugaree” (8)
by Rhiannon Giddens
from “Tomorrow Is My Turn”
21. “You Take Me Somewhere” (8)
by Moors And McCumber
from “Pandemonium”

Your newest recording, Ordinary Cats, features you on electric guitar. When you wrote the songs, did they just scream for a more electric sound?

Originally, when I started the CD, I was thinking of a really stripped down guitar and vocal sound. But these things have a way of developing organically, and one added instrument sound often begets another. When we added the drums to a few of the tunes, it just pushed the music in a direction that I decided to embrace instead of fighting. I’ve always played the electric guitar on the side — more in the last 15 years or so — on other people’s recordings and shows than on my own, so it was pretty easy to add it to this recording. I have a whole set of electric guitar influences that don’t really have to do with my acoustic guitar influences, so I think it works fine to have “two” of me on some of the songs.

Was it your intention from the beginning to make this a more rootsier album than your past recording ventures?

Well, we started working on two projects at the same time — the live album with my group — which became The Kress Sessions [released in 2011] and the beginnings of Ordinary Cats [just released]. I decided to put the more ragtime, swing-influenced songs on the live one and make that one sound different from the studio album. Probably, if anything, it is the lyrics that set the songs apart. They both sound pretty rootsy, in my opinion — I just indulged my classic rock background a bit more on Ordinary Cats. It was a conscious decision not to use the exact same instrumentation on it as in the last few albums. So a different backing vocal sound was key to that. And not using as much dobro and harmonica gave us room to experiment with more keyboards and multiple guitars, and with mandolin tracks.

Tell us about the other players on Ordinary Cats.

FJ Ventre played upright bass and electric bass and co-produced the album with me. He engineered the whole project and did a great job. The main male backing vocalist was Greg Humphreys, a buddy of mine and talented singer-songwriter who has a very cool husky but high vocal style. The female backing vocalist was Lizzy Ross, who is a great young talent also from North Carolina. Pete Connolly, from the alt-folk group Birds and Arrows, played the drums on several tracks; his sound helped define our arrangement decisions going forward from there. Danny Gotham played mandolin and mandola, adding nice textures to the guitar parts. The keyboards were added by Wes Lachot and Lindsay Rosebrock, with Jim Kremidas adding pedal steel to one track also. Our mix engineer was the great Chris Stamey — and he always adds a few little musical doo-dads along the way.

You have cited Neil Young and Stephen Stills as inspirations for the sound on this latest record. What is it about their style that makes its way onto your record?

I have been a big fan of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, CSN (& Y), and Buffalo Springfield since I was a kid. I think it was those fringe suede leather jackets that piqued my interest. I used to always ask my parents to stop at Deerskin Trading Post on Rt. 1 in Danvers, when we were on our way to Boston for things, just so I could look at those coats. I finally did get a used one when I was in my 20s in a shop in Asheville, NC. Now I can’t wear it because you need a certain amount of hair to pull off that look. I’m hoping my daughter will discover that jacket someday and make it her own . . . but I digress. . . . Anyway, Stills and Young both did a lot with Drop D tuning and drone strings, and with certain musical modes. Not to get too music-geeky, but I use the mixolydian and dorian modes a lot in my playing, and I’m sure that’s influenced by those guys. When you cross in the blues- pentatonic style influence, it’s like a weird cross between Celtic folk music and American blues. I am interested in exploring that mesh.

One of your career highlights is that you were an International Blues Challenge finalist. Please tell us more about that competition and what you played when you became a finalist.

The International Blues Challenge thing was fun. FJ Ventre and I decided to enter the local competition here in the Triangle. I never entered it before because I’m not crazy about the idea of music as a competition. But we thought it might be fun to try and see if we could get a free trip to Memphis out of it. We won our local contest and then went to Memphis to compete against the winners of all the regions — people who had won their contests in California, Mississippi, countries in Europe, Australia — you name it. There were 60 acts competing in our division (the solo/duo division) and we were divided into 6 venues of 10 acts each, playing two nights in front of two different sets of judges. We won our venue and then went to the finals on the third night in the Orpheum Theater — the last six acts remaining — quite an honor. We played my original songs — “Ten Days,” “Full Bloom” (an anti-war song), an Elvis song that FJ sang as our tip of the hat to Memphis, and probably something else that I can’t remember right now. We didn’t win. The emcee said to us as we left the stage “You were my personal favorite act.” But we probably didn’t win because we were too “folky.” I think I’m considered a folk musician by the Blues crowd and the Folk Alliance people think I’m the blues player in the room.

You’re so well known for being such a great fingerstyle guitar player. How does it feel to be up on stage and have so many people staring at your hands?

I always thought they were checking out my legs! It’s fun — I like to ask if there are other guitar players in the room — because I use a lot of open tunings and play slide, etc. And being a teacher, I enjoy sharing the information and letting people in on what I’m doing.

I love asking traveling musicians about life on the road. If you had to write one of those Reader’s Digest essays about the most memorable person you met while touring, who would it be about?

I think it would end up being a novel instead of a Reader’s Digest piece… We have met so many memorable people on the road over the years, both onstage and off — people who I love to see every time I visit a town and people I’m hoping never to run into again. Lots of people have been kind to me and my musical compadres — putting us up in their homes, feeding us, and sustaining us. And there have been real evil shits out there, too, though I don’t run into them as much in the folk world as when I was playing rock clubs in my youth. Rather than naming any of the shits, I will tip my hat to some of my favorite people. As far as other musicians I’ve had the pleasure to meet and play with, some folks who have really been gracious and supportive to me have been Roy Book Binder, John Hammond, Jorma Kaukonen, Amy Ray. . . . The list of generous hosts, venue owners, friends, and family is far too enormous to elaborate on, so at the risk of leaving anyone out in print, I’ll suffice it to say that I am in great debt to many!

To learn more about Jon Shain, visit his website.