Tom Bibey Archives - Bluegrass Today

The Legacy of the Red Shoes

Lucy Khadder and David Morris with their red Chucks at World of Bluegrass (9/28/22) – photo © Jeromie Stephens

Dr. Bobby Jones died 10 years ago. But his spirit lives on at IBMA’s World of Bluegrass, in the hearts of many attendees, as well as on my feet and on my bass.

I met Bobby, aka Tom Bibey, at IBMA in 2010, when we both reported for The Bluegrass Blog, predecessor of this publication. We looked forward to writing together again in 2011, but it was not to be. He was too weak to attend. As part of his physical therapy to relearn how to work, he wore a pair of red Chuck Taylor hightop Converse, which he called his “dancing shoes.” So I and several other friends wore them in his honor that year at IBMA.

And the following year, after he passed, I wore them in his memory. I’ve been wearing them ever since when I play, at IBMA or elsewhere. And somewhere along the way my upright bass started wearing a toddler-sized Chuck on the end pin.

These days, aging hands worn out by decades of typing and years of playing limit my playing, but the red shoe tradition continues, in the capable hands of young musicians from the California Bluegrass Association and the IBMA Youth All-Stars.

It started in 2015, when Dave Gooding, a member of a bass player forum that I followed, sought someone to loan an upright bass to his son, who was flying in from the West Coast to Raleigh. I volunteered and shared a picture of my bass, a 1947 Kay S-9, complete with the red shoe on the endpin. I was surprised and honored when Jacob showed up on stage wearing red Chucks. And when I came back the following year, I made sure everyone knew about Dr. Bobby and the genesis of the red shoes legacy.

In subsequent years, Dave’s other son John stepped in. Yep. He wore red Chucks. And Megan January too. Her Chucks were maroon, but close enough.

This year, just a few weeks ago, I agreed to bring my bass to Raleigh for yet another young picker. I never said a word to her or her mother about the shoes. So imagine my surprise when Lucy Khadder showed up to take custody of the bass wearing red Chucks. I don’t know she found out, but I’m glad she did.

I didn’t have time to tell Lucy or her mom the backstory, so maybe they’ll find out by reading this.

I’m happy to hear the old Kay continuing to play bluegrass music, and to see a new generation of pickers carrying the musical tradition forward. But the best part of the legacy of the red shoes for me is to know that Dr. Bobby’s memory is part of each year at IBMA, and that new generations are getting the chance to learn about him.

I hope the good doctor wears his red “dancing shoes” when he plays mandolin in the Angel Band. And I especially hope he can see and appreciate what we’re doing to honor his memory at the World of Bluegrass.

Dr. Tom Bibey passes

Dr. Tom Bibey, author of The Mandolin Case, passed away on Sunday following a lengthy struggle with cancer. He was a prolific writer on things bluegrass, with his own web site, Stories of the Bluegrass Music Road. He had also been a contributor to The Bluegrass Blog.

Bluegrass folks knew him as Dr. Tom, but Bibey was a pseudonym he used in the music world. His given name was Bobby Jones, and his medical patients knew him as Bob, Jr. His father had also been a medical doctor in western North Carolina, and Bob, Jr. continued his dad’s tradition of the “country doctor,” seeing patients outside of office hours, and treating them for what they could afford to pay.

Dennis Jones, technical director and bluegrass radio host at WNCW, was a family friend, and offered this lovely remembrance.

“His love of bluegrass, it’s community and culture ran as deep as mine. Bob’s band, Flint Hill, included Earl Scrugg’s brother Horace on guitar. They played in Studio-B many times, even sharing tracks for our fundraising CDs.

Bob loved playing at jams and on stage, playing golf, doing charity work all over, and going to music festivals. He thrived and reveled in being part of the bluegrass world; seeing him at a large festival and working the crowd was uplifting to me. His counsel was a great treasure to me and his family a Blessing.

His dear wife Marta, children and now grandbaby were the center of his life. He was a true family man, and his love of God first and foremost was what Bob was about.

The bluegrass community has lost a passionate man who cared deeply about its future, and took time to mentor young pickers like the Moore Brothers. I’ll miss his phone calls and FaceBook postings on Sunday mornings most I think. His encouragement was priceless. That, and his broad smile and wonderful laugh.

I’ve lost a brother, but I know one day we will be able to laugh together again and visit with the bluegrass heros we talked so much about.”

R.I.P. Dr. Tom.

The Bluegrass Project

Thanks to a grant from The Foundation For Bluegrass Music, The Gaston School of the Arts in Gastonia, North Carolina will be hosting The Bluegrass Project on October 14-15, 2011. The project consists of activities for both students and teachers, including workshops, panel discussions, music instruction for students, jam sessions and performances by professional musicians.

The purpose of the event is to both educate the students, and provide the teachers in attendance with tools to teach their classes, about the history and cultural significance of bluegrass and traditional music in the region. As most devoted bluegrass fans know, North Carolina produced Snuffy Jenkins and Earl Scruggs, but also country music’s Don Gibson, and many more modern era bluegrass artists.

Participating presenters and performers will include Darin Aldridge, who teaches at the Gaston School of the Arts when his touring schedule permits, Jason Burleson, notable bluegrass fiction writer Dr. Tom Bibey, sociologist and singer-songwriter Al Dunkleman, Reggie Harris, and Darin & Brooke Aldridge band members Rachel Johnson and Dwayne Anderson.

The public is invited to a concert at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday (10/15), which will feature faculty members and guest artists. A nominal admission cost of $5.00 will be collected to cover concert production costs.

For directions to the school or other information about The Bluegrass Project, contact the Gaston School of the Arts by phone at 704 866-8882, or by email.

Dr. Tom Bibey’s newest challenge

When Tom Bibey’s CD of mandolin duets with Darin Aldridge comes out, pay special attention to the opening track, Amazing Grace. It won’t have the polish of a studio recording, but it will have more than enough raw emotion and energy to compensate. The song was recorded Sunday on Tom’s back porch — just days after he learned he has a brain tumor. Brooke Aldridge joined in, as did Wayne and Kristin Scott Benson.

The CD is just one of numerous projects Dr. Tom has lined up for later this year and beyond. There’s a mandolin instruction book for children and the much-anticipated follow-up to his first novel, The Mandolin Case. And, most importantly, his first grandchild, a boy, is due in October.

Dr. Tom, as he is widely known, has been telling friends and readers of his blog about his condition in a frank, just-the-facts manner for days, but this morning his report was welcomingly upbeat. “OK guys, I have a treatable brain tumor,” he wrote on his blog. “There are documented cures of my disease, and not just sporadic ones.”

He was similarly upbeat in a message he sent me last night to share with readers of Bluegrass Today:

“I have concern but no fear. I have faith, a secure place in Eternity, the best family and the world’s finest extended music family – bluegrass. Combine that with great docs and nurses and I have as good a chance as anyone could have.”

I’ve only known Dr. Tom for a short time, since we both served as correspondents for Bluegrass Today at IBMA last year. But I feel like I’ve known him forever. I still carry the $2 bill he gave me in my wallet, and I think about him every time I sing that song about losing all my money. These last few days I’ve been singing it a lot in tribute to this wonderful character.

There is a long road ahead for Dr. Tom, including chemotherapy. The early stages of his disease and treatment have affected Tom’s close-up vision and have left him too weak to hold a Fender Telecaster to play country music, but his sense of humor and sense of what is right are still intact. The other day he wrote a song called The Brain Tumor Blues, which he dedicated to “my doctors, my nurses and to anyone who suffers.” And while he asks for prayers, he said he doesn’t want anyone feeling sorry for him. Save that, he asked, for those without resources to fight their illnesses and for children with cancer and other serious diseases.

At one point in the song, he sums his philosophy for dealing with the tumor and getting on with his life:

“There’s doctoring to do and stories to tell, still so many songs to play I’ve just got to stay.”

In a message about that recording of Amazing Grace, he wrote, “Let the healing begin.”

Amen, Dr. Tom. Amen.

The Mandolin Case from Tom Bibey

Tom Bibey is a physician and bluegrass musician living in North Carolina. Always an avid reader, Dr. B. has taken to writing more and more in recent years, and his blog (Dr. Tom Bibey: Stories of the Bluegrass Music Road) has become popular among both bluegrass lovers and his fellow physicians, as he tackles both topics with style and panache.

He has just released his first book of fiction, The Mandolin Case, which he describes as “a medical legal mystery solved by the local bluegrass community.” Who wouldn’t want to read that!

It is available for sale through Amazon.com for only $18. Sounds like a perfect vacation companion for the bluegrass reader.