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News - Hector Saldaña named Texas Music Collection curator at The Wittliff

RELEASED September 18, 2017

SAN MARCOS, TX - The Wittliff Collections are delighted to announce that Hector Saldaña has been selected to be the first curator for the newly-created Texas Music Collection. Saldaña starts on October 2.

Saldaña has been writing for the San Antonio Express-News for more than 20 years and is currently a senior staff writer and the newspaper's music columnist. His articles have covered a wide range of subjects, from hard-hitting investigative reporting along the Texas-Mexico border, to celebrity interviews with Yoko Ono, George Carlin and Beyoncé. In his career, Saldaña has been a regular contributor to the Austin-American Statesman, Texas Monthly, Country Weekly, MTV and KUT-FM. He has won national journalism awards, including the Best of the West's 2017 award for Arts and Entertainment Writing and awards for Features Specialty Writing Portfolio and General Feature from the Society for Features Journalism in 2016.

Saldaña brings a rich knowledge of Texas music to The Wittliff. He is a leading expert on San Antonio’s conjunto, Tex-Mex, Chicano rock ’n’ soul and West Side sound. He also is the founder and songwriter for The Krayolas, which have been featured in Texas Monthly, Pollstar, Billboard, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Village Voice and on NPR “All Things Considered” and Sirius XM Satellite Radio programs “Little Steven’s Underground Garage” and “Kick Out the Jams with Dave Marsh” and MTV.

“We're excited to have our front man for Texas Music,” said David Coleman, director of The Wittliff Collections. “Saldaña brings terrific knowledge of and enthusiasm for Texas music of all kinds, which is just what we need for our new Texas Music Collection.”

This news comes on the heels of The Wittliff's recent establishment of the new Texas Music Collection, plus last week's announcement that Jerry Jeff Walker has donated his archive.

The Texas Music Collection expands The Wittliff’s mission to collect, preserve and share the cultural legacy of the region. The collection will be built around the full range of Texas music, from classic and progressive country to Tejano, conjunto, folk, rock and roll, blues, hip-hop, zydeco, Western Swing and more. The Texas Music Collection will acquire a broad range of materials, from handwritten song lyrics and historical documents to audio and video recordings, artifacts, memorabilia, photographs, posters and interviews from music journalists and biographers.