Recently The Wittliff played host to hundreds of fans eager to meet famed photographer Keith Carter. The room was filled to capacity with dignitaries, authors and respected photographers from across the state. Among the photographers in attendance were Wyatt McSpadden, Matt Lankes, Kenny Braun, Bill Wright and Amanda Smith. They were all there to celebrate …
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It’s a face that’s launched a thousand conversations at The Wittliff Collections. Wyatt McSpadden’s iconic photograph of singer-songwriter Abra Moore has been a conversation piece since it was first published in Texas Monthly in January 1996. The framed print — showing in that long-ago magical moment the impish-looking singer holding a guitar and on her …
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The Wittliff is excited to announce that you will soon be able to hear in-depth interviews with your favorite Wittliff authors, thanks to a new partnership with “Bookmarked,” the weekly radio program hosted by Priscilla Leder on San Marcos radio station KZSM. “Bookmarked” presents a lively literary discussion led by Leder, who is a Distinguished …
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Golden Age ranchera singer Rita Vidaurri, who died January 16 in San Antonio at age 94, was a friend of The Wittliff Collections. Thanks to the Ramon Hernandez Collection, and a 2017 exhibition “Legends of Tejano: Highlights from the Ramon Hernandez Archives” curated by Hernandez and journalist Joe Nick Patoski, Vidaurri’s contribution to Texas music …
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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, Gene Thomas, Bubble Puppy, the Moving Sidewalks, ZZ Top and dozens of legendary teenage garage …
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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 Southwest, taking advantage of Bill’s editing, book design, photography, and illustration skills to produce finely …
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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 made various country musicians famous. Powers is a legend in his own right, penning hits …
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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 Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Blaze Foley, figures known as much for their drinking and …
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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 Marlon Brando and Anthony Quinn. Joel’s photographs are an homage to this town and …
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Are you ready to celebrate Austin Film Festival’s silver anniversary? We at The Wittliff are looking forward to yet another festival full of fun, interesting, and inspiring film screenings and discussion panels. In fact, the Wittliff, in collaboration with AFF staff, is putting select panel recordings from past festivals online. Hear Ed Solomon, who also …
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