Brent Grulke in 2007 at SXSW – before the festival headquarters became the 'Chronicle' annex Credit: John Anderson

South by Southwest Music Festival Creative Director Brent Grulke, 51, died of a heart attack this morning following oral surgery. A pillar of the Austin music community starting at UT’s Daily Texan and later the Chronicle, he went from writing about local bands to working for them and finally booking thousands of them and more at SXSW.

More on Grulke – an integral part of the Chronicle family both in his editorial tenure here and through his leadership at the paper’s sister business, SXSW – in this Thursday’s issue.

In the meantime, here’s Michael Corcoran’s heartfelt personal remembrance on Grulke, as well as an informative industry profile.

This article appears in August 10 • 2012.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.