Watching a professional entertainment team like Lloyd and Terri in an informal setting like this is a treat indeed. I’ve seen them play at large and small venues, sticking to the set list and running through the between song “tuning” patter with practiced acumen. At this house concert, all (or at least most) of that went out the window. Terri and Lloyd just seemed to leave the set list behind and had fun in a most contagious manner.

The show started out with a customized “Happy Birthday” song for Kenny with several “Kenny only” verses added to the traditional lyrics. They followed that with a rare cover song playing Billy Joe Shaver’s “Live Forever”. The show continued with some great Terri songs like “Life’s a Song”, “Fair” “Spiritual Kind” and “Hand Me-Down Blues”.

Those songs were followed by a rare performance of the hilarious “You Mangled My Dog”. (Yes, it’s funnier than it sounds. Check YouTube.) They followed that with an equally rare, but in no way humorous, performance of “Jim Thorpe’s Blues” and “Ain’t It a Shame”. The pair closed out the first set with a song that Terri made up on the spot, that both recognized the attendance in the audience of Matt Harlan (of “Bow and Be Simple” fame) and enticed the audience to have a slice of birthday cake. Terri Hendrix’s creativity never ceases to amaze me.

There was a longer than usual intermission as cake was served and Kenny was congratulated by all. When the music started up again, it was as though Terri and Lloyd had quit messing around. The instrumental interplay seemed to scale up a notch and I found myself hypnotized by Lloyds chords and leads. The set started with what might be my favorite Terri Hendrix song, “Wallet”. That was followed by a most spiritual and rhythmically tight “Bring ‘Em All In”. The mood lightened up a bit as Terri dedicated “Don’t Pet the Dog” (a John Hadley tune) to Rusty Pipes, Kenny’s dad.

Terri and Lloyd continued with dedications by performing Kenny’s personal favorite “If I Had a Daughter” and a conditional dedication to Mike Castillo (videographer for Almost Austin) in “Slow Down”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uRSaokIsnQ  That was followed by Terri’s hit “I Found the Lions” (covered by Carolyn Wonderland) complete with raga vocals.

The evening began winding down to what seemed an all too early end as Terri invited Matt Harlan and Rachel Jones up to the stage for a performance of “Bow and Be Simple” with Lloyd on guitar and Terri blowing harmonica. It was a picture perfect scene with four talented individuals just having fun in a small venue. Matt and Rachel remained on stage for “Wind Me Up” as a youngster named Andrew from the audience was called up to help sing the evening’s festivities to a finale.

It was indeed a special evening, getting to see Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines let their hair down, having Matt Harlan and Rachel Jones perform with them, and being able to celebrate the birthday of a great purveyor of the arts like Mr. Pipes. All hats off to Kenny for having a dream like Almost Austin and making it come true, month after month. Ya’ll have fun. We do.