I'll Be Here in the Morning: The Songwriting Legacy of Townes Van Zandt

Terri Hendrix

Terri Hendrix He got a green bottle from the freezing vaults My friend started doing backward somersaults Through the cottage cheese —TVZ, “Talking Thunderbird Blues,” from Live at the Old Quarter T erri Hendrix’s album Cry Till You Laugh (2010) showcases the singer-songwriter’s vast musical diversity. Bluesman Sonny Terry (on the song “Hula Mary”), country troubadour Rodney Crowell(“SlowDown”),andjazziconEllaFitzgerald(“TakeMePlaces”) all haunt the collection Hendrix fashions as the “yin and yang of life.”1 Terri Hendrix, Cactus Café, Austin, TX, July 31, 2010 188 I’ll Be Here In THe MornInG ThebroadscopekeepsfreshherlongtimemusicalpartnershipwithLloyd Maines, the legendary Grammy-winning instrumentalist and producer forGuyClark,RayWylieHubbard,JerryJeffWalker,theDixieChicks,and others.2 “We’re hungry for music,” Hendrix says. “We’re ruthless about digging for music. I’m into techno, drum loops, far out, weird, ethereal music. Lloyd isn’t scared of that. He keeps me reaching artistically.”3 Terri Hendrix, born February 13, 1968, in San Antonio, Texas, began performing at open mic nights at Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos, Texas, in 1991. Today she regularly traces Townes Van Zandt’s footsteps onstage at such Lone Star venues as Sons of Herman Hall in Dallas, the Mucky Duck in Houston, and Austin’s Cactus Café. Many along the way share stories about a Van Zandt concert that was heartbreaking ,hilarious,andsometimesboth.“Ionceobservedanentireclub achieve a meltdown in his presence, people crying into their hands, a shared emotional participation I’ve never seen the likes of since,” journalist Chris Dickinson recalls.4 One of Van Zandt’s several corny jokes to lighten such dark moments was, “What’s white and runs up your leg? Uncle Ben’s Perverted Rice.” “I think that it’s wonderful that Townes could be funny and he could be serious, and you’d take him seriously,” Hendrix says. “He’d have a ridiculously funny song, like this one on a Cactus Café recording that might be called ‘Noah’s Ark.’ It was just silly, but yet he was taken seriously as a songwriter. That’s had a really big impact on me.”5 Inherownway,TerriHendrix’ssingularityshinesasbrightlyasTownes Van Zandt’s. Most notably, she designed a business model for other independent artists to follow by founding and managing her own Wilory Records,aswellaspublicity,publishing,andmarketingventures.6 Hendrix established Wilory Records after failing to find a record label willing to release her debut album. “I was mad because I got three rejection letters for [1996’s] Two Dollar Shoes,” she says. “One of the rejection letters pretty much said ‘No, and get a day job.’ I put that record out on my own, and by the end of the summer not only had I paid back the record, I had paid off a student loan. I got satisfaction out of just flat not quitting.”7 TerrI HenDrIx 189 After a dozen albums, including popular collections earthy (2004’s The Art of Removing Wallpaper) and ethereal (2007’s The Spiritual Kind), supporters hail Terri Hendrix as one of Texas’s premier independent musicians. The foresight helped earn Hendrix, who won a Grammy Award for cowriting the Dixie Chicks’ instrumental “Lil’ Jack Slade,” a star on Corpus Christi’s South Texas Walk of Fame in 2010. Hendrix’s participatory live performances have become legendary throughout Texas and folk festival circles nationwide. The songwriter captures the communal vibe she creates onstage on the albums Live (1999) and Live in San Marcos (2001). Her recent album Cry Till You Laugh is also notable for its song “Einstein’s Brain,” which directly addresses Hendrix’s ongoing struggle with epilepsy and its effect on her career. “I’ve been dealing with epilepsy for twenty years,” she says. “I use cheat sheets when I play, and nobody really knew why. But this record is about doing what I love to do—play music.”8 • • • Terri Hendrix I never got the opportunity to meet Townes. At the time of his death, I was unaware of him. I came home from a gig, and my roommate was crying. She was crying because Townes Van Zandt had died. That’s how I learned about him. I really started to get involved with trying to find out more about his music after his death. A friend of mine who was a clubownerhadabookthatwasfullofTownesVanZandtlyricsandsheet music. It was this old worn out book printed in San Antonio as a limited edition called For the Sake of the Song. So, I started...