Cry Till You Laugh — The Part That Ain't Art

Terri Hendrix has always preferred to celebrate the light rather than wallow in the blues — but she’s no stranger to facing the dark head-on. On her new album, Cry Till You Laugh, the award-winning Texas songwriter spins sorrow into joy and wrings wisdom from the blues with the poetic grace and uplifting melodic flair that has long been her trademark. As Jim Beal of the San Antonio Express-News observed in his review of the album, “Part of the beauty of Terri Hendrix’s music is she’s among the best at recognizing, writing about and celebrating resilience and common ground, the things we can all cry, and laugh, about.” A classically trained vocalist and deft multi-instrumentalist (guitar, mandolin and harmonica), Hendrix is a firm believer in the theory that “life’s too short for one genre,” dodging musical pigeonholes alongside legendary producer Lloyd Maines (guitar, dobro, pedal steel), by weaving folk, pop, country, blues and swinging jazz into an eclectic style all her own that plays like a carefully compiled mix-CD. Add to that her charismatic stage presence and reputation for always delivering an energetic and spiritually uplifting live show (from intimate listening rooms to huge outdoor festivals), and it’s no wonder why the Terri Hendrix “experience” has been embraced by three generations of loyal fans across the country and around the globe. To date, Hendrix has released 14 albums on her own Wilory Records label. In the fall of 2011, she published the second edition of her first book; a tie-in with her latest album featuring song lyrics, photos and essays on life, health, business, music and “owning your own universe” called Cry Till You Laugh — The Part That Ain’t Art. Although music has been Terri Hendrix's primary artistic output through most of her career, her "Goatnotes" newsletters have long proven her to be equally adept at expressing herself via the written word. That side of the artist was fully revealed in "Cry Till You Laugh — The Part That Ain't Art," the combination essay collection/music-industry survival guide that she released in December 2010. As a trailblazing independent artist who lives by the motto “Own Your Own Universe,” Hendrix has spent two decades juggling both her art (making music out of life) and everything that goes into maintaining a “DIY” music career. So it’s only fitting that the award-winning singer-songwriter’s first book is two books in one: part companion piece to her latest album, "Cry Till You Laugh," with lyrics, photos and essays linked to the songs on the record, and part how-to guide for going-your-own way in the music business (that's "The Part That Ain't Art"). The essays dance from “cry” to “laugh” and back again, touching candidly on everything from hilarious road stories and stage-fright jitters to poignant matters of the heart and her life-long battle with epilepsy. It may sound like a crazy mix, but as any fan of Terri Hendrix’s music can attest to, that’s Terri … to a “T.” The book has been warmly received by both fans and critics alike, with the Austin American Statesman calling it "equal parts spiritual and practical, honest, funny, useful, revelatory and moving." Once she sold out of the first-edition run of 1,000 copies (within a mere six months after the book's release), Hendrix dove back into the original manuscript, revising and updating much of the "Part That Ain't Art" section, and also adding a handful of brand new essays. The second edition was released on Oct. 11, 2011.