TERRI HENDRIX at Cactus Cafe 7-31-10

Kind of fitting we ended the month at the Cactus as we started July off with the annual Firecracker Fest there.  And, with the days winding down at the Cactus as we know it, each show becomes a little more important...and melancholy.
We hadn't seen a full Terri show in probably 2 years!  We've seen her at the Christmas Bazaar and more recently, opening for the Indigo Girls and that's about it.
She's out touring behind a brand new record, "Cry Till You Laugh."  On this night Terri was joined by Lloyd Maines, her great guitarist and the super cool Glen Fukunaga on bass.
She did 2 sets.  The 1st one lasted over an hour and the 2nd set lasted an hour.  Cover was $15 and the room was packed.  We got a heckuva show.
First off, she's always fun, tells good stories, holds you between songs.  The camaraderie she shares with Lloyd is unmistakable, neat to watch and listen to.  They could be a comedy tag team!
The music.  We heard a ton off the new album and is it ever terrific.  Although I hadn't heard the songs before the concert, everything she performed sounded great.  You know if you like songs the first time you hear them, you're on to something good.  You could tell the album must be pretty eclectic as we got blues, folk, straight ahead jazz and New Orleans jazz.  A real mix of styles.
We also got to hear some of her older work including songs she wrote that I'm familiar with from other artists.  She did "Hole In My Pocket" which Ruthie Foster does a great version of and "I Found The Lions" which Carolyn Wonderland kills on.
The cd is fantastic.  Once I started listening to it after the show, the songs really came to life. On the jazz stuff you have clarinets, horns, everything.  She scats, croons, it's all over the map.  There are a couple of songs that sound like she wrote while listening to George Harrison during his Ravi Shankar period.  You also get straight ahead blues, folky blues, Allen Toussaint's New Orleans sound, Dixieland swing, Americana with the pedal steel, fiddle and mandolin.  Music as it should be, anything and everything.
Not to mention what a great writer she is, whether she's talking about the world or her mom.
"Some things you don't get over, you just get through"
So, we took July out with a bang.  It may even be our last show at the Cactus under the current management.  If so, we couldn't have asked for anything more.