Doctor known for song about uninsured farmer dies of cancer

Dr. Ben Bullington, who gained national attention for recording a song telling the story of an uninsured farmer caring for a wife with cancer, has succumbed to the disease himself. The family physician from White Sulphur Springs, Mont., died Nov. 18. He was 58.

His song “ Twangy Guitars” was featured on the nationally syndicated radio program “The Midnight Special” in 2009 and host Rich Warren introduced it by telling his audience to stop whatever it was they were doing so they could pay attention to the lyrics. Bullington told Modern Healthcare at the time that he devoted “an hour or two” each day to music with the rest of the day focused on his practice. He went on to record five albums which included guest appearances by country music artists Rodney Crowell and Mary Chapin Carpenter.

After being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last November, he retired from the staff of Billings Clinic-affiliated Pioneer Medical Center, a 25-bed critical-access hospital in Big Timber, Mont., to devote the rest of his time to music.

“It's not curable at this point,” Bullington told the Bozeman (Mont.) Daily Chronicle in July. “But none of us is getting out of here alive.”

In a video of his appearance last December in Nashville with Crowell and others, Bullington introduced the song “Country Music, I'm Talking to You” by describing that during his 20 years as a “small-town doc” he worked mostly nights in six-bed hospitals where nurses always had country music playing on the radio—to his growing displeasure. “I just feel like this great, clear lyrical form that we have is not all that it could be,” he said.

According to the No Depression roots music blog, it was his first Nashville appearance.

Survivors include his three sons and his former wife.

Bullington will be remembered on this Saturday's edition of “The Midnight Special.”

Follow Andis Robeznieks on Twitter: @MHARobeznieks