Search - Terri Hendrix :: The Art of Removing Wallpaper

Raising the bar

06/08/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While I've never been a fan of knocking one artist or album to praise another, this album really is a cut above pretty much any other "Americana" or folk album you'll likely hear or read about this year. I pre-ordered it at one of Terri's Texas shows back in February, and it's just about all I've listened to in the week or so since I got it. Terri's been getting better and better with each album, but this one takes the cake. It's worth it for "Breakdown" alone, but "Monopoly" is a flat-out anthem against media consolidation that deserves heavy rotation on every independent-and-proud radio station in America. This is beautiful, bold, smart, fun and even sexy music - the kind most program directors these days seem to run screaming from."

It keeps getting better and better......

gsupp | PA | 08/03/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"With each successive album, it becomes clearer and clearer that Terri Hendrix is someone who does her homework and studies every night, as the playing and the writing only gets better and better with each release. As is typical Terri, there are too many musical styles to categorize to one genre, and none of the styles are shrifted -- she does each one justice, from folk to bluegrass to country to americana to that reggae beat that pops up on one track. Also a treat is the more featured prominence of Lloyd Maines on the tracks, he adds a great harmony vocal, and lays down some serious steel, more so than on Terri's previous works. Lyrically, it is Terri's strongest to date, and don't be surprised if you're sitting down to ponder the state of world affairs as well as your own personal one's after listening. It's hard to pick a favorite track but highlights are Judgement Day, Enjoy the Ride (love that harmonica playing), and Monopoly (a strong statement against the corporate control of radio and media).

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Some Very Good Songs on a Misfire Album

Kevin L. Nenstiel | Kearney, Nebraska | 12/18/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Like many folk and indie artists in the last few years, Terri Hendrix has been moved by the muse to craft a social/political album. And like many social/political albums in the last few years, this one has some very good songs, and clunks in between.



If you've heard tracks like "Breakdown" and "Monopoly," you know that Terri Hendrix has some sharp, incisive views. She has the ability to cut through the chatter and get right to the heart of what's wrong in our world today. But if you listen to the album cuts that haven't been released to radio and podcasts, tracks like "It's About Time" and "Judgement Day," the lyrical content becomes leaden and declarative. She feels the need to spell everything out, like she can't quite trust her audience to follow what she's saying and come to their own conclusions. It's as though she lapses into a professorial mentality, lecturing to students who are hunched over their composition books taking notes.



Sonically, this album is sterling. Hendrix doesn't abandon the guitar-driven Texas country sound that has characterized most of her music to date. But she does incorporate a little more of a peppy pop aspect that steers her ringing voice into more Mariah and less Loretta Lynn. Reading over what I've just written, I realize that could sound like an insult, but I don't mean it that way. Rather, Terri uses the mainstream like a buffet, picking and choosing what serves the very individual hybrid sound she's trying to create.



Late in the album, she slackens on the political drive, and a sturdier, more organic lyric crive comes through. I admit to not liking Luka Bloom's version "I Need Love" from a few years ago, but Terri Hendrix makes it her own, and it works well. "Quiet Me" and "Long Ride Home" were both written by other artists, but Hendrix makes them her own, adding a welcome dose of personal introspection at the end of the disc.



Fans of Terri Hendrix will find plenty to like about this CD. So will fans of indie folk and lo-fi country. Even the weaker political songs have good musical resonance, including some violin and cello, and supporting vocals from Ruthie Foster. This album isn't a future classic, and it isn't even going to be remembered as one of Hendrix's better efforts. But it is going to be heard and remembered, and that's what really matters."