Cole was born
December 13, 1982, on Friday the in Visalia, CA. He was named after
his great-great uncle on his mother's side, Cole Younger, a famous
outlaw. I found out that prior to that, Cole Younger was a
bushwhacker involved in guerrilla warfare for the Confederate Army.
Cole Fonseca was raised in the small, rural town of Woodlake, CA
about 20 minutes outside of Visalia. His mother's family had been a
part of the town for about 120 years.
His father's
original business was as a farm equipment auctioneer He was always
active in the church and got started doing Christian Concert
Promoting, putting on concerts for the youth. Now Cole's father is a
world-wide minister.
His father's
involvement with Christian Concert Promoting is what got Cole started
on music. Cole wanted a guitar, but harmonica was the first
instrument at the age of 7, and was introduced to the blues when he
got a hold of a cassette tape called The Blues Night featuring some
great Christian Blues Artists, Darrell Mansfield, Glenn Kaiser, and
Larry Howard (hopefully we will be doing stories on these great
players). Due to no secular music in the house, he devoured this
tape. After hearing the great licks Darrell Mansfield was playing
on the harp, Cole got inspired and as he said, I was playing the
blues...playing the snot out of it." He later went on to
playing drums in church at 12 years of age.
At 14, Cole
went to Nashville to stay with some of his father's friends. Cole's
foster dad in Nashville had invented the Fiber Optic Slicer and was a
very wealthy man with a passion for music, owning the biggest
recording studios in Nashville. This is where he met Pat MacDonald
(Charlie Daniels Band) and blues guitarist, Chris Anderson (formerly
of the Blackhawks and now with the Outlaws).
He attended a
song writing school in Nashville where he was mentored by the great
Nashville songwriter, John Hiatt. He also had the opportunity to
meet and study with Pat MacDonald a great musician who drums for the
Charlie Daniels Band. At the time Cole had a drum background but Pat
saw something more in Cole. He picked up a guitar at 17 and 2 years
later that was it and it became his main instrument. He experimented
with Jimi Hendrix, Howlin' Wolf, and early George Thorogood. He put
a slide on his finger and as he said "it fit."
He started
getting into Charlie Patton and Bukka White which took him to a new
place. He decided not to be a copycat and found his own voice, his
own style and created his own signature sound.
Getting a hold
of his mother, whom he hadn't seen for 6 years, Cole came back to
Visalia and hooked up with Frank Alsing, who was married to his mom's
best friend. Frank was playing in a country band and at the request
of his mom, Frank became Cole's first drummer.
When I first
met Cole a few years back, we were at the Main Street Inn in Ripon,
CA...rippin' it up. Cole's drummer, Frank Alsing, and I had history.
We had played in a band called Stagecoach around '78. We had a great
time playing, sort of feeding off each others playing. He gave me
one of his CD's and it was great. Interesting side note: he told me
that the hotlel he ended up staying at in Ripon was the worst hotel
he ever stayed at with a light barely hanging onto the ceiling with a
string and paperclip to turn off and on not to mention the toilet
seat the was only half there...
Not long after
that I was talking with Frank and he told me of the tragic accident
Cole was in. Cole told me of the accident. He said he woke up in a
body bag. He hadn't had a pulse for 10 minutes so they thought he
was dead. Cole thought he was dead as well. The accident happened
so fast and he didn't know where he was...only that it was dark. He
started screaming because he was in complete pain, his body was
trashed and mangled. The accident happened about 7 years ago and
every day is a recovery from the effects of what he went through. To
this day he lives in a lot of excruciating pain due to the
neuropathic pains that can become so hard to bear.
Recently Cole
won the finals at the King of the Blues Contest at the Guitar Center
in Visalia. In relaying what happened at the finals, they picked
straws and as it would happen, he ended up going first. One of the
judges was late and didn't see him perform. There was a kid there
that originally won who was a student of the judge that didn't see
Cole play. The crowd wasn't pleased and because the judge that
wasn't there "voted" on Cole's performance, Cole asked him
how he could judge him. The judge said he had seen Cole perform
before 4 years ago when Cole wasn't even playing guitar. You can't
judge on someone's past performance so they had a runoff, a sudden
death that Cole won by a landslide. As Cole said when we are doing
something for GOD, the enemy uses people to attack you. So now he
moves onto the next level. I believe he will do well.
His current
band is called Cole Foncesa and the Phoenix Jubilee. Cole is on
guitar, harp, and vocals. Hw talks about the current band as the
best band he has ever had and that he has always had good players,
but these are the best. He talks about them as part of a great team
that works really well together and that they play his music better
than anyone has. On bass is Matt Molten who has been with him the
longest, about 4 years. They have been across the country together
and he refers to Matt as his right hand man; they have been through a
lot together. On guitar is Richie Blue, who has been with him about
2 ½ years. Richie has played with Boz Scaggs and many other major
artists, as well as session work for Capitol Records. His drummer's
name is Anthony Delgado who's been in the band for about a year.
He met his
guitar player, Richie Blue playing in a cover band, a southern rock
band that was contracted at a casino. The singer, who was a guitar
player as well, was real difficult to deal with. Cole was playing
harp as a side man in the band. The casino was paying the band more
than the singer was telling the band so he was pocketing the
difference. The band found out about it and wanted to replace him
and do more original music. They wanted Cole to sing and be the
front man for the band. But Cole stuck up for the guy ever though he
was ripping the band members off. Out of jealousy the singer fired
Cole out of the band at Christmas time, hurting both the bills and
the presents Cole wanted to get his family. At the time this had
happened, Cole was close friends with this singer and had lent him
his first and main Stratocaster even teaching this guy how to play
slide guitar. So after this singer fired him, Cole wanted his guitar
back and the guy said, " Well maybe".
Cole told him
no he only lent the guitar to him and wanted it back. The singer
said he would think about it and maybe he'd give it back to him. So
he went to the casino with his brother because the guy said he had
Cole's guitar there. So Cole opened up the case and was horrified at
what he saw. The strings were ripped off and left on the guitar and
this jerk had cracked the guitar down the middle. Cole had tears
running down his face. This so called friend added insult to injury
when he told Cole, "How do you like that you cripple? You'll
never play guitar again, How do you like that?"
Cole's brother
ended up going to jail that night...if I was Cole's brother that
night, I would have gone to jail as well. This was the main reason
Cole decided to play guitar again. It may have started in anger, but
I like the results. He has proved that singer to be wrong...very
wrong.
The band
hasn't done much touring, but they will be playing at the Monterey
Bay Blues Festival and will be going to New York this year.
Another great
venue they will be playing at will be the Blues And Bones Festival in
Angel's Camp. There will be some great acts and a bbq
competition...music and food in Angel's Camp...does it get any
better?!? Here is their link: http://bluesandbones.com/
Rolling Stone
Magazine has put together an interview and pictures for July or
August edition. The way this came about was by a friend of Cole's
who passed away a couple weeks ago. He was entertainment lawyer,
Kirk Keys, from Three Rivers who was a fan of Cole's for about 12
years. He sent the Lazarus Video and a nice booklet that explains
Cole's story with pictures of the accident, his studio CD the Phoenix
and his new CD Lazarus livev and they were totally taken back by
Cole's story and wanted to do a two paragraph story on him that will
be in the back of the magazine. Cole is humbled by the expose as not
a national blues artist.
As for tone
and style on the harp, he gives Darrell Mansfield the credit.
Darrell is a great influence for any harp player. He plays the harp
like an instrument and gets more mileage on a harp than any other
player I have heard. The last time Cole played with Darrell was in
2007. Doesn't know if Darrell is aware that he is playing guitar
again.
He feels he is
playing slide better now than he did. Cole is a very unique player.
He told me Ron Thompson is his mentor on slide and that he is one of
Ron's biggest fans. Slide is favorite and he said that Maxx Cabello
Jr. plays slide on his lap as well. After the "singer
incident", he went in the garage and woodsheded for awhile. He
had a couple of ideas. He even thought about playing with his feet.
He settled for what was natural and put the slide on his thumb. He
uses his finger to pick and add other notes on the neck.
He's shared
the stage with many greats like B.B. King, got his name in the
official Blues Hall of Fame, and he's got a plaque of him in the
State Capitol Building. He has overcome so much adversity yet doors
are still slammed in his face. He has sent his material to all the
record companies, but they seem to think he is "over the
top"...and what's wrong with that? He would like to record with
ATL Records where all his favorite artists are. His main goals are
to touch people with his music and his faith and to provide for his
family.
He gave me a
homework assignment to see the song Lazarus. He told me this was
the first time they performed the song live and what we hear for the
words, he made up on the spot. As he said it was like GOD was
singing through him, He told me the song was anointed and I must
agree...it had me in tears, and choking up every time we talked about
it throughout the interview.
Truly talented
people are overcomers. To survive the accident and find a way to
play great guitar and to sing and play harp at the great level he
performs at is a tribute to his faith and knowing who he is in GOD.
He feels he is touching people and GOD is working through him...I
can't agree more.
Videos:
Lazarus song
Black Widow
before the accident the Cole I played with
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