I'll hit the original question first, and yes, the revised version is completely updated to be compatible with 3.5e. There are more spells, more feats, and more music abilities than in the previous version.
As to how complex things are, well, the simple answer is "you don't have to use everything in it." It has a good selection of new bard spells (mostly from other OGC sources), if you just want to beef up the bard's spellcasting. If you want to expand the bard's music, you can use the entire system as presented - or if you prefer, just "cherry pick" musical abilities one at a time and roll them in.
If you're concerned about tracking XP expenditure on the bard's part, just avoid those few abilities that require an XP expenditure to use... and use the method presented in the book for learning the abilities that does not require any XP on the part of the learner ("mystic music compositions" - think of it in the way a wizard uses a scroll to add a spell to his spellbook - while the wizard doesn't have to burn XP to copy a spell into his spellbook, somewhere along the line someone had to burn XP to put in on the scroll in the first place - in the same way, the bard doesn't have to burn XP to learn the ability)... this is a great way to introduce just a few new abilities, one at a time.
In the case you presented - trying not to overwhelm a new player - I myself would be of the opinion that the best way to handle this would be to place one of these "music scrolls" as a magic item treasure in lieu of a conventional scroll with spells on it. The music scroll allows the bard exactly one new ability (of your choice). Let him play with it, and give him a chance to use this new ability. If he likes it, introduce another music scroll later on. Maybe also give him access to a couple of the Feats (perhaps the "Extra Bardic Music" feat to start - which seems obvious given a cleric's Extra Turning feat - then maybe tack on one of the Feats that allows him to affect non-language-understanding creatures - animals, for instance).
Once he gets his head around that, one hopes he will have quickly wrapped his head around adding more (my guess is that, much like learning languages, each new ability will be more easily integrated into his character than the previous one, since he's had practice at doing so). At this point, adding abilities could be as simple as music scrolls (compositions), but that's hardly satisfying, is it? You're giving him freebies... make him work!
Perhaps introduce him to an NPC tutor who will teach him a single line of new techniques (one "big ability" plus all of its prerequisites - probably pick something that doesn't overlap with others in the group; for instance, if you have no druids/rangers, set him up with the "Nature's Remand" series that mimics Summon Nature's Ally), but require him to pay some of the XP cost this time around, etc. Or perhaps a magic instrument that has as its magic the ability to play a certain tune that creates the effect of a specific ability once per day.
Eventually, he'll probably catch on that there are more things out there that he can do than he knows about. When he expresses an interest in doing new things that you aren't "spoonfeeding" him... THAT'S when you give him the whole book.
This way, you can expand upon the bard slowly... giving the player a paragraph here, and a paragraph there, rather than dumping a huge (144-page) PDF and having him have to digest that kind of a monstrosity. Building a paragraph at a time is always easier than building a book at a time!
I hope that answers your question. If you have any more questions, please ask. I check ENWorld a couple times a day (not as much as I used to, but still enough to keep a finger on the pulse of things).
--The Sigil
