I’ve been friends with Barry Brake since we were both attending rival high schools, but going to the same church. He’s a brilliant guy, with both an incisive mind, which comes through in his speech and writing, and dextrous fingers, which come through in his music. He did the music at Sea World for The Shamu Show a few years back, has played regularly with a jazz trio for over a decade, and is always good for a fascinating conversation on some topic or another.

Barry started this new year with surgery to remove cancer. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that the results were as good as he and his doctors had hoped for. He’ll be beginning chemotherapy on Monday. While that is inevitably a slightly-to-terrifically miserable experience, his doctors are optimistic that it will have good results. (His cancer is evidently of a type that responds well to chemo.)

Those who are interested can follow Barry’s progress on his site here. Those who pray, please add Barry to your list.