1996 to present: 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. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.