Doors open at 10:30 a.m.
Snacks provided at midday break.
Something magical happens when a songwriter puts pen to paper for a novel or memoir. The same is true when music journalists, authors and music insiders aim high to capture the musician’s muse and tap into the heart and soul of the musicians whose songs make the world go ‘round.
The Wittliff celebrates the stories and the storytellers that bring music to the Lone Star State with a full day of panel discussions with authors that wrote the book on Texas music!
Is it a music festival for books? ...or a book fest for musicians? Join us for Literature That Rocks
RSVP HERE for parking instructions.
For assistance, or for mobility impaired/accessible parking, please call 48 hours in advance at 512-245-2313, press 0.
Our morning panel with feature Eddie Wilson and Jesse Sublett (The Armadillo World Headquarters: A Memoir), Diana Finlay Hendricks (Delbert McClinton: One of the Fortunate Few), Michael Corcoran (All Over The Map: True Heroes of Texas Music)
Singer-songwriter Rachel Laven, one of the winners of the Kerrville Folk Festival’s prestigious Grassy Hill New Folk Award in 2017, received raves for her superb folk and outlaw-country album, “Love & Luccheses.” Laven hails from San Antonio and has performed since she was a child in the family band The Lavens.
Read more about her and her new album at her website rachellavenmusic.com
Our afternoon panel with feature Joe Ely (Reverb), Holly Gleason (Woman Walk the Line: How the Women in Country Music Changed Our Lives), Augie Meyers (Autobiography), Joe Nick Patoski (Willie Nelson: An Epic Life)
The former Austin American-Statesman music critic and longtime newspaperman was nominated for two Grammy Awards, as a co-producer and for liner notes, for “Washington Phillips and His Manzarene Dreams,” the compilation celebrating the forgotten Texas gospel musician. His first book "All Over the Map: True Heroes of Texas Music" was updated and re-released last year. Corcoran's papers are part of the Southwestern Writers Collection at The Wittliff Collections.
Austin's legendary singer-songwriter has straddled country music, rock 'n' roll and folk since bursting out of Lubbock in the early 1970s with the Flatlanders with Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock. As a solo performer he's heralded Texas songwriters and penned original gems like "Honky Tonk Masquerade," "Me and Billy the Kid," "Letter to Laredo" and "Musta Notta Gotta Lotta." His latest acclaimed album is the introspective "Panhandle Rambler." As an author, he brought his eye for detail and storytelling to his novel, "Reverb: An Odyssey" and to his road memoir based on journals and drawings, "Bonfire of Roadmaps."
This respected music journalist and industry insider brought together a collection of essays by some of country music's top writers and music critics. "Woman Walk the Line: How the Women in Country Music Changed Our Lives" finds deeper meaning in the songs of Maybelle Carter, Wanda Jackson, Dolly Parton and Tanya Tucker, to name only a few. The essays come from some of Gleason's friends and favorite writers such as Elysa Gardner, Wendy Pearl and Caryn Rose. Roseanne Cash and Taylor Swift also contributed essays.
This veteran writer and photographer's new biography of Delbert Mclinton, "Delbert McClinton: One of the Fortunate Few," has received high praise. For more than two decades, as a co-owner of Cheatham Street Warehouse, Finlay had a front row seat to the best of Texas music. Her San Marcos is a part of Texas music history for its role in launching George Strait. As an award-winning writer her bylines are well known among music fans and throughout the industry.
If Doug Sahm was the soul of the Sir Douglas Quintet, then most certainly Augie Meyers' Vox Continental organ was the sound of the pioneering 1960s rock 'n' roll combo which counted Bob Dylan and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones among its fans. Meyers has famously fronted his own outlaw country, blues and rock bands but he is best known as a founding member of the Texas Tornados. He's been working on his memoirs and will share stories about his wild life.
This respected music journalist, author and music scene insider has been reporting on Texas music for more than 40 years. Nearly half that time was spent as a go-to staff writer at Texas Monthly. He's managed rock bands, witnessed milestone moments and his work is informed by a love of Texas blues and conjunto, sports and its great outdoors. Patoski's biographies range from Selena and Stevie Ray Vaughan to Willie Nelson. Patoski's papers are part of The Southwestern Writers Collection at The Wittliff.
The Austin musician and writer and cancer survivor first came to fame with the '70s punk rock act the Skunks and the Violators. But his essays, novels and nonfiction works have expanded his audience far beyond music. His novels include "Rock Critic Murders," "Tough Baby" and "Boiled in Concrete." Whether it's a harrowing memoir, "Never the Same Again: A Rock 'N' Roll Gothic," or "1960s Austin Gangsters: Organized Crime That Rocked the Capital," Sublett's work has been riveting and critically acclaimed. Sublett is part of the Southwestern Writers Collection at The Wittliff Collections.
His Austin music venue was at the crossroads of country music and rock 'n' roll. In the early 1970s, concert promoter Wilson's Armadillo World Headquarters brought together hippies and rednecks, a combustible, if unlikely, audience and vibe that birthed outlaw country and redneck rock. Wilson is a pioneer and mover and shaker in the Austin music scene with his Threadgill's restaurants, landmarks on the music and food beat. His book with Jesse Sublett, "Armadillo World Headquarters, A Memoir," tells the story of the legendary stage shared by Willie Nelson, Doug Sahm, Jerry Jeff Walker and Bruce Springsteen.
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