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By Ann-Maureen Owens
with photography by Bernard Clark
With an infectious smile, Jim Biagi steps up to the microphone and introduces the band. Then he immediately starts the show with a pitch-perfect rendition of the Eagles’ classic, “Take it Easy,” and a smooth transition to R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion.” The band is called Old Docs New Tricks, and the lead singer, Dr. James Biagi, a medical oncologist, is joined by seven other doctors on guitars, mandolin, drums, keyboard and vocals. They are performing on Grant Hall’s stage for their peers at a Queen’s Health Sciences 30th Anniversary celebration and soon have the other medical professionals up and dancing. “If we have half the audience up on the dance floor,” Jim says, “I know we are kicking it!”
Music and medicine both developed as passions for Jim as an adult. Born in Toronto, with an older sister and a younger brother, he was raised all across Canada. Due to his father’s engineering job with Canadian Industries Limited (CIL), the family moved every two or three years — between Montreal, Sudbury, Toronto, Edmonton, and Prince George, British Columbia, where Jim graduated from high school. As a youngster, he was involved in soccer and competitive running but was never really established enough in any one place to join a hockey team — something else he took up as an adult.
“I was accepted into the forestry program at UBC, but then my family was transferred back to Ontario, so I decided . . .
