Terri Hendrix
Cry Till You Laugh
Wilory Records
visit Terri's website
also available on amazon
Terri Hendrix, extremely versatile and eclectic San Antonio native, has put together a record that is very similar to her live shows, grab a tune from here, pull in another song from this genre, and then go over in this direction for something different, though unrelated, the songs dovetail into a whole that shows their relationships more clearly. She pulls together 15 songs here, 12 of which she wrote or co-wrote, that when listened to are a whole and show influences that run from Rodney Crowell to Sonny Terry to Simon and Garfunkel to the swinging French Jazz of Edith Piaf. She stretches her vocal challenges, or maybe she is just now revealing these talents and several new sides of her vocal capabilities to us. This is a disc that deserves some careful listening and is filled with the joy she dispenses just in making music.
She is joined here by her long time main collaborator Lloyd Maines, multi-instrumentalist, there is a count of 11 different instruments he plays here and he contributes harmony vocals, in he co-wrote 5 of the tunes, and he produced the disc. With the release of this disc any stereotypes about what type of musician Terri Hendrix is can be dispelled because on this one she destroys all stereotypes and lets her muses lead her where they may and she is more than up to the challenges they throw at her. She shows her true colors as she moves effortlessly through country, blues, folk, jazz, swing and probably a few I have forgotten to mention. They have assemble a cast of supporting musicians that are more than up to the task; Glenn Fukunaga helps with bass and ukulele and Riley Osbourn, on piano and keyboards are just two of them that add to the joy on this disc.
Terri also has a new book with the same title. The book is currently, as of August 2010, only available on her website.
