Search - Terri Hendrix :: The Ring

"Don?t rush me," Hendrix asserts on her unflinching new CD. "I?m coming along." Judging from the sound of it, Hendrix has arrived, with a collection of songs driven by a survivor?s grace and an optimist?s soul. An album of extraordinary depth and stylistic diversity, The Ring serves as an apt?and for some unexpected?culmination to the first six years of Hendrix?s journey as an independent artist. From the opening notes of "Goodbye Charlie Brown," the songs here affirm Hendrix?s revered strengths as a writer and performer while serving notice that times have changed. On her last studio album, the eloquent Places In Between (2000), Hendrix struck a reflective chord that suited the often highly personal subject matter; on The Ring, she takes a considerable step forward: her ambitious vocals, melodic instincts, and expertly crafted songs are unified as never before, supporting the album?s clearly delineated focus and showcasing a voice at once mature and unabashedly honest, confident and courageous. "I?ve been who I am, and I?ve been who I?m not," Hendrix sings. "Both have led me to find my own point of view." Along the way, she?s discovered much about herself?she?s wiser now; stronger too?and she?s gained an appreciation for the enduring truths that anchor us: the need for love; family and friends; and undying faith?in oneself, in each other, in the universe. On The Ring, Hendrix reminds us that the cycles of our lives lead us into territories both familiar and unknown, changing us in unexpected ways, forcing us to consider and reconsider our place in a shifting universe. And yet, in its permanence, the ring reminds us that even as we grow and change, with grace, we?ll ultimately arrive back where we started?knowing the place, perhaps, for the first time.