Here’s a great feature story on Terri Hendrix published in the Friday, Feb. 11, 2011 edition of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (and one LubbockOnline.com) in advance of her sold-out Rockin’ Box 33 concert that weekend.
Hendrix says life’s challenges make shows more meaningful
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / LubbockOnline.com
Posted: February 11, 2011 – 12:11am
Saturday’s Rockin’ Box 33 house concert featuring Terri Hendrix reached sellout status weeks in advance. Melissa Grimes, who produces this series, could not be more pleased, or less surprised.
As she put it, “Terri’s music is like a breath of fresh air that seems to get better — purer — the deeper you breathe in. She is a woman of wit, wisdom and conviction: a poet with a wide smile and a deep heart.
“I adore how she leaves you feeling lighter, even though you can sense your exposure to something philosophically profound.”
She may have hit on something.
In fact, veteran singer-songwriter Hendrix’s shared experiences have, thanks to her first book, proven to be as eclectic and varied as her music.
Her 14th and most recent CD, 2010’s “Cry Till You Laugh,” began as an initial foray into jazz, and yet emerged reminiscent of a mix tape burned for someone special.
More than that, the recording stands tall as proof that Hendrix simply will not be stopped from making music, not by any of the challenges faced during her career, including a medical condition hardly ever mentioned before a newsletter musing in 2005.
“I was diagnosed with epilepsy in 1989, but I didn’t tell anyone,” said Hendrix. “I didn’t tell anybody. I kept it totally secret.”
Aside from personal torment, there was, after all, a fear that bookings might be lost because of venue owners who never bothered to learn about epilepsy, and thus feared it.
The literary version of a mix tape is the revelatory book that Hendrix wrote to accompany this recording, a tome titled “Cry Till You Laugh, The Part That Ain’t Art.”
Portions of the book might be recognized by those who kept up with Hendrix’s Goat Notes newsletters over the years.
That she always has loved to write is obvious. As a child, she wrote children’s stories.
This “Part That Ain’t Art” — her nickname for the business side of the music business — explains why and how she pays her bills as an independent artist and, hey, how you can, too. Song lyrics are balanced by humorous tales from the road.
And as Hendrix writes down the experiences, meetings and conversations important enough to be remembered years later, there is, hidden only partly beneath the surface, enough anger and fear to grant many of her songs additional depth.
As she reveals her epilepsy, she makes certain that readers are much better informed.
She remains an entertainer, yet is driven to make a difference one day via an interactive project called Own Your Own Universe, or OYOU.
But before all this, there had to be Marion Williamson.
Indeed, asked where she’d be had their paths never crossed, she said, “Probably in prison. I wasn’t doing too great at the time. I was just waiting tables and a friend of mine, who had warrants for her arrest, wanted me to go to Mexico with her to pick up some diet pills.
“I was just naive, clueless.”
This was after Hendrix had given up a voice scholarship at Hardin Simmons University in Abilene thanks to a lack of interest in music theory classes, and had transferred to Texas State University in San Marcos.
Little did she know she’d learn more by milking goats.
Indeed, Williamson hired her to help tend her goats on a patch of land called Wilory Farm, a name Hendrix would borrow for her own record label.
Williamson became Hendrix’s mentor, teaching how how to play guitar, how to better control her epilepsy through proper diet. Hendrix said Williamson taught her not to let outside forces affect her respect and dignity, and “to take your own little acre, water it and make it the best you can.”
The power within that lesson, the singer eventually realized, can be applied to farming, music and much bigger issues — politics, the arts and, perhaps someday, a wellness foundation where medical knowledge can be shared and patients with low self esteem can find help.
Williamson died of cancer in 1997. It hit Hendrix hard.
Speaking from her San Marcos home, shared with several dogs, Hendrix brought up two separate seizures, one in 2003 and one in 2009, both frightening.
The one in 2003, she recalled, had her ready to give up until she learned of a teenager in San Antonio, Delaney Mendoza, who refused to let her epilepsy get her down.
Hendrix said, “I told myself, ‘I am not going to get my booty kicked by some kid.’ I willed myself to get up. … Later, we had the chance to meet and motivate each other.”
But it was a scary time. For a while, she used cheat-sheets to remember lyrics.
The most touching part of her book arrives as Hendrix, before collapsing again, apologizes to musician Lloyd Maines for keeping a secret that frightened him.
They are more than friends. They’ve performed together, since structuring a business partnership in 1998..
She said of Maines, “He is difficult to work with. You have to be in tune and on time at all times. He is always on his game, always top notch.
“But I like how solid he is as a person. There’s no dancing around that. In the music industry, people don’t always do what they say. Lloyd is solid. He doesn’t vacillate.”
Contacted in Austin, Maines e-mailed, “Terri’s work ethic is amazing. She really cares about her fans and makes an effort to deliver her best show every time she takes the stage.
“This is pretty amazing, when you consider that she operates her own record label and her office on every day that she’s not on the road.”
Fans notice. Saturday will be the third time that Dale Newberry, of Lamesa, attends a Hendrix concert. He says in his e-mail that “Prayer for My Friends” is his favorite Hendrix song.
Hendrix almost did not make it back, she said, from her grand mal seizure in 2009. “Cry Till You Laugh” is the music she fought to create.
“It isn’t easy to talk about epilepsy and no, it darn sure isn’t cathartic,” she said. “But I just keep thinking that, every time I talk about it, I might be helping somebody.
“Some people don’t even know they have epilepsy, which can be the most dangerous of all.”
Yes, her music is important. This is her career. She’s careful to consider diet, herbs and acupuncture, But high risk insurance is expensive. So is being sick.
“It’s a bummer that it happened,” said Hendrix. “But it has made my writing more meaningful, and it has made my shows more meaningful.”
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