First things first. Thank you for taking the time to check out The Wittliff Collections’ new blog, “The Keystone.” For most of you the word will be familiar—the Keystone was the semi-annual newsletter you received in the mail for many …
Welcome to The Keystone
First things first. Thank you for taking the time to check out The Wittliff Collections’ new blog, “The Keystone.” For most of you the word will be familiar—the Keystone was the semi-annual newsletter you received in the mail for many …
Teen Canteen letters shed light on ’60s youth culture
Sam Kinsey’s fabled Teen Canteen, a teen dance club which operated from 1961 to 1977 at various locales in San Antonio, wasn’t only an important rock venue of the era – the Sir Douglas Quintet, Mike Nesmith (pre-Monkees), Mike Post, …
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A Brief History of The Encino Press
In 1963, shortly after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, Bill Wittliff and his wife, Sally, founded the Encino Press on the kitchen table of their Dallas apartment. The press focused on regional material about Texas and the …
The Boys Who Wrote the Songs
The Rogers & Hammerhead Show aired from 1996-1997 on the Austin Music Network on cable access TV. Freddy Powers and Bill McDavid created the show to shine a spotlight on songwriters who developed country music in Texas—and whose songs …
The mystery of Texas songwriter Rich Minus
Making sense of the hard luck and career of forgotten “Laredo Rose” songwriter Rich Minus isn’t easy. There are lots of gaps in the story of the enigmatic San Antonio native who for a time ran with hard-scrabble singer-songwriters Townes …
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month: From the Photography Archives
Joel Salcido recently donated several of his photographs from his 2002 Roma, Texas series, Entre Fantasmas. Roma is a small town on the Texas-Mexico border and was the location of the filming of the 1951 Viva Zapata movie, which starred …
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The Wittliff acquires Tejano Music collection of Ramón Hernández.
San Marcos, TX – As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University have acquired one of the largest known collections of Tejano Music materials and memorabilia in existence from renowned musicologist and collector Ramón Hernández. …
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“It’s Only Rock ’N’ Roll” now digitized
Forty-one issues of the indie music newspaper It’s Only Rock ’N’ Roll have been digitally preserved by The Wittlliff Collections at Texas State University. You can view the inventory here. Published in San Antonio by music journalist Ron Young, the …
