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Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #117 (April/May 2005).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Terri Hendrix

Meditation, Inspiration, and Laughter

by Kerry Dexter

Each year from mid-December to Christmas eve, the echoing space of the Austin Music Hall becomes the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar, a lively marketplace of artists and craftspeople selling their wares under a ceiling strung with holiday ornaments in the shape of Texas, stars of all sorts, and sparkling holiday garlands. It's a friendly, laid-back holiday atmosphere enlivened by music. Many of the Texas hill country's best, home for the holidays from taking their music all over the world on tour, show up to share their musical gifts in festive style with the holiday shoppers. Singer/songwriter Terri Hendrix, with backing from guitarist Lloyd Maines, drummer Paul Pearcy, and bass player Glenn Fukunaga, was the featured player one night this winter season. The group led an ever-changing mix of music fans and curious shoppers through a lively mix of songs, political and personal, funny and serious, with a few Christmas carols and the occasional invitation for the audience to join in. It was a happy holiday crowd, treated to the range of Hendrix's talent -- a talent she at first thought she'd take in a much different direction.

"I won a vocal scholarship in classical music -- opera -- to Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas," she recalled in an earlier conversation. " I just didn't like it very much. It's so restrictive. I kept wanting to have fun with Bach, and you just don't have fun with Bach in a classical setting. I'm sure Bach had a great sense of humor." Humor is a good part of Hendrix's work, as evidenced by songs about a macho range-riding cowboy who comes into town because he loves to shop, and another about an evening as designated driver that ends up leaving the singer alone at the bar.

Hendrix's humor always has both a point and a touch of compassion, but that is by no means the limit of her work. She's a 21st-century troubadour who tackles the foibles of government and corporation, as well as the trials of love in her songs. Political commentary, offbeat social observation, acknowledgment of the importance of solid relationships, respect for one another, and the importance of hope and encouragement, set to melodies that include percussion-driven hooks, Western swing, and folk ballad, appear in her catalog. At the holiday show, she included "Walk on Me," a song inspired by former neighbors who had band rehearsals in their apartment, and the more recent "It's About Time," in which an ever faster-paced melody backs lyrics about the way time seems to speed up when one has more to do.

Hendrix herself is familiar with that situation. Like most musicians, she spends a good part of her time on the road to make her living. Not long ago, though, she stepped back from touring for a bit, a period of time that turned into a home repair project and time to finish the songs for her most recent album. She's called the recording The Art of Removing Wallpaper.

[cover #117]