About Dr. Bibey

        My name is Dr. Tommy Bibey.  Everyone just calls me Dr. B.   I’ve had an unusual life.  I am a real doctor, and I’ve spent many years as a semi-professional bluegrass musician.  Yeah, I was different, but you gotta be what you are.  As one of my friends said, “Musicians are strange and doctors are weird, I don’t know where that leaves you.”

        Along the way I’ve met many memorable characters.  I learned many lessons, and decided I had to compile a written record to document our way of life.  Few modern Americans are aware of how we live.  While many a suburbanite snoozes in front of  television summer re-runs, our people tour the country, play music in every nook and cranny, and in general soak up every ounce of richness life has to offer.  Every once in a while one of our folks will get lucky and pen a hit for an established country star, but in general it remains a working man’s music. 

        It is a difficult music to play, but very little of the “star” mentality has crept into our collective psyche.  I suppose that is because everyone from the beginner to the expert started at the same place, the beginning, and didn’t forget where they came from.  (As Lester would say, “They ain’t got above their raising.”)

        Almost everyone in the music is dedicated to their craft.  As a result, the level of play on the circuit is quite high.  As in the early days of the pro golf tour, though, it isn’t all business.  Even the most celebrated players will take the time to give a few pointers to the uninitiated, or offer help to the unknown talented player who hopes to cut a bigger gig.   As a consequence, most of our amateurs are also very proficient, a fact that prompted one wag on Mandolin Cafe to comment, “real musicians have day jobs.”

        The focus of our genre is the music, and the search for excellence.  Like the old golf tour, the bluegrass circuit is full of characters who persist for their love of the game rather than the material gain they might be rewarded.

        It is becoming less common in this country for an art form to retain its genuineness to the same degree as in bluegrass music.  Even more unusual was the case of Dr. Henry Indian Jenkins. Indie’s story is “The Mandolin Case.”  In it, a band of bluegrass folks were the key figures who uncovered the truth in a complicated medical case.  It was a story that had to be told.

        ”The Mandolin Case’ was released in May of 2010.  Is is available from my website www.themandolincase.com or directly from Amazon.com. In the story, all the events were fictionalized to protect privacy and the guilty.  However, it is all true.  As my agent always says, “Son, you can never lie to your reader.”  To quote a Lit Professor, “For it to be good fiction, it need not necessarily have happened but it must be true.”

        I promise I’ll do my best to bring you the truth with my work.  Except for the fiction part, all my stories are true.  So, with that thought, I hope you will enjoy your journey into Harvey County.  They say you must write what you know, and I did just that.  Harvey County is the world of physician bluegrass fiction, and I know every back road in the county.  I can’t wait to show you around.  

Dr. B

Advertisement