Texas music and its musicians have long been part of Bob Dylan’s musical orbit. Dylan was influenced early in his career by artists like Lightnin’ Hopkins. And, throughout his career, he has partnered, collaborated, and played with Texas musicians like Doug Sahm, Kinky Friedman, Charlie Sexton, Jimmie Vaughan, and Billie Joe Shaver. For Dylan, Texas is more than a series of stops on his tours. It’s a creative well-spring of storytellers, guitar-singers, myth makers, and truth-tellers that he often returns to. That’s why I wanted to talk with Kathleen Hudson, founder of the Texas Heritage Music Foundation. Kathleen has spent decades listening to, collecting, and documenting the voices and stories of Texas musicians like Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Marcia Ball, Terri Hendrix, Joe Ely, and Willie Nelson. Her interviews form an oral-history archive that captures both the music these artists created and how they understood themselves as storytellers. In this episode, Kathleen and I talk about her work collecting the stories of legendary Texas musicians, the importance of storytelling, how music is a conduit for identity and culture, and, of course, how all of this touches Bob Dylan’s work.
Bio:
Kathleen Hudson is a Texas writer, educator, and cultural advocate best known as the founding director of the Texas Heritage Music Foundation, which she established in 1987 and led for three decades A longtime English professor at Schreiner University in Kerrville, she retired from the department in 2024 after more than 56 years of teaching and mentoring students in writing, creativity, and storytelling Hudson is the author of several influential works on Texas music and musicians, including Women in Texas Music: Stories and Songs, which grew out of years of interviews with artists across the state. Her work blends scholarship, oral history, and a deep commitment to preserving Texas’s diverse musical heritage. In addition to her writing and teaching, she continues to lead workshops and creative programs focused on personal transformation, narrative, and the power of language.
Links:
Website:
https://www.kathleenhudson.net/
Facebook: @kathleenhudson123
Instagram: @hudkat
