Hello Loved Ones. In addition to the music update I attached from a local music magazine, I thought I'd add a slightly more personal update.
I've returned to Bellingham because I finally was able to act on the realization that health insurance or not, I'm not going to heal where I'm not happy. I came back up where I feel supported by friends and community. And it actually looks like the health insurance will be okay sooner or later. In the meantime I have been taking trips back to the Bay Area for medical care. I've been able to book wedding gigs, private parties, and/or concerts to help pay for my trips down there.
Through the help of a dear friend and patron of the arts who happened to have some cash on hand, I have purchased a half interest in a house here in Bellingham. I am managing it for the other half owner, filling the house with tenants, acting as a landlord, and contracting improvement projects on the property. Simultaneously, I am designing and building a mother in law cabin in the backyard that I will live in once it is completed. This whole project is a way that I can have some security in a rapidly booming community that I am endeavoring to put down some sort of roots in. Once everything is rolling along in a couple months, I should be able to live in my simple way comfortably without worrying about the increasing rent here in gentrifying little Bellingham even if I am only living off of the pittance of a disability check I might recieve from the Social Security Department. And that seems to be a worst case scenario.
As for best case scenario: I seem to be living it. I guess I'm technically living as a professional musician. It strange and exciting. I believe I am as successful as I could possibly be for a musician only performing concerts in Whatcom County. Still, despite the fact that I am playing in a widely diverse range of musical projects, I am already feeling my creative head hit the roof a little bit. There are only so many people to make an audience out of in Bellingham, especially playing 3-5 nights a week.
When I moved back up to Washington I had a list of goals I hoped to achieve in the first year or two: To find a home to call my own, to be playing in some exciting and well recieved roots music projects, to play in a rock project with Ian Voorhees that would parallel and exceed the excitement and popularity of my last project with him, and to call a monthly community square dance that was exciting and well attended. I have gotten to the place I wanted to be a lot faster than anticipated (3 months or so), so I'm now trying to focus on my next set of goals.
Getting the best of my cancer before it gets me is of course a constant goal I'm striving toward. I have finally allowed myself to start seeing a therapist and I'm working on dealing with cancer fears and everything else that bemuddles me emotionally. Musically I'm trying to focus on travelling with my projects (I'm trying to plan some spring and summer tours for a couple of my bands) so that I don't overplay myself in little ole Bellingham. I'm also trying to finish 2-3 records for Springish releases. I'm long overdue. Let me know if you've got an uncle, agent or mystical cancer healer that can help me with any of these goals.
Anywho, I love all ya'll and hope that things are moving forward positively for everyone. Below is an article that appears in this months WhatsUP, the Bellingham music magazine.

Brent Cole (The Editor of WhatsUP) asked me to write about coming back, about my observations on the current state of affairs in Bellingham, about my cancer and about my music. So here I go:
I spent the last three years living in San Francisco and Oakland. I did a lot of street performing, played a lot of weddings and private parties and taught a music program for students with emotional disturbances. I missed Bellingham constantly and I returned about a dozen times while living in the Bay Area. I returned as often as possible to play some shows, visit friends and just to be in Bellingham. I came back so much that a handful of people I've talked with recently didn't even realize I'd left. And I guess in my heart I never did.
CONDOHAM
Yes, i've noticed Bellingham is changing drastically. It's more expensive, gentrifying, it's more difficult to live here as an artist. But guess what? It's happening everywhere. Any beautiful place that cultivates a thriving artist scene will face this struggle. But what are we going to do? I don't mean that rhetorically. When faced with this dilemma, besides complaining about it, what are we actually going to do?
We can run somewhere else where the squeeze isn't on as severely yet, we can give up, stay and gentrify along with the rich folk moving in, or we can do something to help the community continue to be the amazing place we fell in love with. We can try and help push the change in the direction we want.
I came back from living in San Francisco where the fight for a community like this is still happening, believe it or not. Sometimes it looked to me like the fight had been lost. Other times I would notice a vibrant community of artists down there who have had to ban together, get their shit together and resist all the more intelligently and soulfully. I didn't feel like a part of the community there, but I witnessed it. There are a great deal of people continuing to live life in meaningfully artistic and musical ways despite incredible challenges. We've got years before we face a San Francisco sized squeeze in Bellingham and we've got piles of strong brilliant people, so I have hope that some of us will do what we can to ensure a future for the type of community we want. We can see the direction things are heading, maybe that means we can prepare and prevent some.
I don't begrudge anyone who is leaving because they feel squeezed out, especially those folks who fought the good fight and left this community better for their efforts. I just don't want to invest energy into complaining about it if I'm not investing energy into figuring what I can do about it.
I think believing that you can run away from the squeeze is naive. Unfortunately, it's going to follow you. It's everywhere, and at some point you have to decide where you are going to take your stand. I've decided to take mine here because Bellingham has been so good to me and I will always love her. I want to fight on home ground and with friends.

SCHMANCER
I have cancer. A softball sized tumor in my right shoulder. It's called Desmoid Sarcoma or Aggressive Fibromatosis, a really rare form of cancer that the doctors don't know how to deal with. I've tried a lot of different things and continue to try a lot of different things. It's slow growing and might not kill me anytime soon, but it hurts horribly all the time and has messed up the mobility in my right arm something awful. Accordion is a lot harder to play than it used to be and frailing (one of the styles of banjo playing I do) has become painful to such a point that I avoid it lately.
What else do I say? Cancer is a big reason I returned to Bellingham. When I first got diagnosed, a bunch of angels I'm fortunate enough to call my friends threw a big benefit for me at the 3B. I got on stage to express my gratitude but got choked up and couldn't continue. At that point the large roomful of people clapped and clapped and clapped while I stood alone on stage in tearful silence. Jordan Francisco called it "claptotherapy".
The night of my benefit concert I felt like a whole community let me know they appreciated me. A lot of individuals approached me and let me know that I had somehow inspired them, moved them or touched them with my music. That phenomena continues to happen. Many of these individuals are people I have great respect for. I have to acknowledge that without the crisis I'm facing, I might never have known how they felt. It's one of the greatest things I've gotten from my struggle for health.

I've been trying to return for the last two years. Health insurance and medical care worries prevented me from returning for a while, but I'm finally back where I should be. I am scared about my right arm's deterioration and that seems all the more reason to be performing as much as possible. I am scared about the things happening in Bellingham. The 3B, the Nightlight, Smash Your Guitar, The Weekly, all gone? Yes I'm a little scared, but Bellingham is still about the greatest place I've ever been and I want to hang on and fight for it's continued beauty. You can't swing a cat without hitting a musician I'd like to play with in this town, and I'm taking full advantage of it. I'm back and playing music full time, feeling happy, and feeling like part of a community. If cancer's killing me, then I'm dying happy. And If I'm getting better, then I'm living right.

BANDS and MUSICAL PROJECTS

THE GALLUS BROTHERS
Devin Champlin and I play wild ragtime and old country blues. He's a great fingerpickin' guitarist and has a sweet voice. I get a chance to play my bizarre suitcase drum kit I made(see photo). We have a variety of vaudeville style stunts (I stand on his shoulders while we play a song, we juggle while playing the guitar together etc.) and have had a great showing at our recent concerts where crowds actually dance. It's always fun to be in a dance band and I feel especially lucky to be in a two-piece dance band.
The Gallus Brothers play every Monday night at Boundary Bay beginning in January. Admission is free.
THE SQUARE DANCE
I started calling square dances about a year and a half ago. It's about the best community building activity I have ever been a part of. I call dances the last Sunday of every month at the Fairhaven Firehouse. Lots of young hip folks come, lots of families with kids, a great showing of an older generation show up and everyone dances with everyone else to a live, local old time band. People who expect to hate it have a blast. People who expect to like it end up hopelessly addicted, calling me in the middle of the night halfway through the month begging me to call dances more often.
This month's dance: Sunday, January 29th, 6-8pm. $3 at the Fairhaven Firehouse.
JILL BRAZIL
We reformed this band in early December in order to play the 3B once more before its demise. We have had our share of packed, wild shows there and we thought one more would be appreciated and fun. The line up has had to change because of logistics, but one of the many upswings of the new line up is that we will be playing regularly again. I'm incredibly excited about the current possibilities of Jill Brazil. We have the same unique approach to writing and are drawing from the same set base as before, but the possibilities for exciting new originals seem even greater now. It's a little weird to be playing saxophone again after all these years. I guess I'm surprised at how easily it comes back.
Jill Brazil plays Saturday January 28th at Chiribins with the Sweaty Sweaters and Hicks Machine.
HICKS MACHINE
My solo project involving a sample pedal and lots of beat boxing. Weird and fun.
See above show schedule.
THE TANGLERS
A banjo-accordion band. Sarah Holmes plays accordion to compliment my banjo playing and Ian Voorhees plays Bass. We play and sing a number of old time tunes, some klezmer music, a Venezuelan waltz, an Italian tarantella, some minstrel tunes from the 1800's, some Eastern European music and even a bluegrass tune or two.
The Tanglers are performing at Bison Printing Press on Friday January 6th with the great Ben Todd. 9pm. All ages. 5$.
A digression:
Many people think that bluegrass is a term for just about any kind of American roots music. It's not. It is a term referring to a subtype of music that became formalized into a genre in the1940's by the popularity of Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys. It's a common mistake. The editor of this magazine, in fact, has been known to make that mistake. Actually that guy makes a lot of mistakes, I oughta start a band named "Brent Cole needs to learn to copyedit," or "Brent Cole always misses the opening band because he's too drunk". No, no those are too harsh, I just want to playfully rib the guy, I'm grateful for all the hard work he's done for the music community. Still, I would like to lightheartedly yet publicly sort of make fun of him. What if I called my band.....
THE BRENT COALMINERS
I don't like most bluegrass. Most as in 99%. Most of it is slick and trite and predictable and the rowdiness seems contrived. And the fact that it is all the rage right now and every hipster on the West Coast plays it has burnt me out on it even more. So how did I end up playing banjo in a bluegrass band again? Because when it's great, when it's that small 1% that is genuine and raw and fun and sincere, bluegrass is really great. It's a raw, soulful howl of Americana. And Stell conned me into it.
I'm honored to have the opportunity to play with such an amazing line-up of musicians (Stell Newsome on Guitar and Vocals, Ian Voorhees on Bass, Chris Glass on fiddle).
My aim is to let Ian's unorthodox rockin' bass style pull us out of the expected, to shoot for the 1% that is good bluegrass, to write more weird instrumental pieces and vocal tunes that challenge the form and to let my distaste for all the tasteless Bluegrass out there help guide us toward something better. And if we don't succeed, I'll just kill the other members in their sleep and then burn down my house. The Brent Coalminers play the first and third Wednesdays of this month at Boundary Bay. Admission is free.