Restrictions to Access

Access to streaming audio or moving image materials may be restricted to researchers who can authenticate with an ONYEN or who are physically present on campus. For further information about access to streaming audiovisual materials, contact Research and Instructional Services staff at Wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Roy Book Binder and Larry Johnson Recording #20570, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Roy Book Binder in August 2019 (Acc. 103673).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Anne Wells, September 2019

Encoded by: Anne Wells, September 2019

Archival processing of the Roy Book Binder and Larry Johnson Recording was made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Blues (Music)
• Blues musicians.
• Book Binder, Roy.
• Johnson, Larry, 1938-

White folk/blues guitarist and vocalist, Roy Book Binder has been playing country blues since the mid-1960s, when he began recording for Blue Goose. Greatly influenced by African American blues musicians, Reverend Gary Davis and Pink Anderson, Book Binder played in East Coast coffeehouses in the early 1960s, then began accompanying Reverend Davis on tours in the mid-1960s. He also played with African American blues singer and guitarist, Larry Johnson; African American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup; and African American blues singer and guitarist, Homesick James. Besides constant concerts and tours, Book Binder has made additional recordings for Blue Goose, as well as Adelphi, Rounder, and his own PEGleg label.

Larry Johnson (1938-2016) was born in Fulton County, Ga. After serving in the Navy from 1955 to 1959, Johnson moved to New York and befriended Brownie and Sticks McGhee and began playing on records by Big Joe Williams, Harry Atkins, and Alec Seward (Guitar Slim). Known for his fingerpicking and acoustic blues, Johnson's playing was influenced by Blind Boy Fuller and his mentor, Reverend Gary Davis, whom he later toured with. He released his first single, "Catfish Blues"/"So Sweet," in the mid-1960s, and by the late 1960s, Johnson began releasing albums on the Prestige, Blue Horizon, Blue Goose, and Biograph labels. Johnson mostly retreated from live performances and touring during the mid-1970s and into the 1980s, but did release two albums with African American blues harmonica player, Nat Riddles, in 1983. By the 1990s Johnson began touring again, especially in Europe, and released two albums on the British labels, JSP Records and Armadillo Music Ltd. In 2003 he performed live at New York City's Radio City Music Hall as part of a blues benefit concert executive produced by Martin Scorcese, produced by Alex Gibney, and directed by Antoine Fuqua. The live performances from this benefit concert were released as Lightning In A Bottle: A One Night History of the Blues a year later.

Open reel audio recording of white folk and blues singer and guitarist, Roy Book Binder, and African American blues singer and guitarist, Larry Johnson. Made in April of 1971, the recording features versions of blues songs performed by Roy Book Binder and Larry Johnson, including "Every Day of the Week", "Delia", "Shake It and Break It", and "Hesitation Blues", among others.

• Audiotape (FT-20570/1)