Louis Meyers, SXSW co-founder, who brought Folk Alliance to KC, has died

Louis Meyers, who co-founded the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in 1987, and spearheaded Folk Alliance International’s 2013 relocation to Kansas City, Missouri, has died, reports the Austin American-Statesman. No cause was immediately given.

This year’s edition of the Austin, Texas, event, popularly abbreviated as SXSW, kicked off today with a keynote address by President Barack Obama.

Meyers, whom The Pitch profiled in 2013, integrated himself smoothly into KC’s music community and was a visible presence at the Folk Alliance-affiliated Folk Store, in the City Market. (That’s where we photographed him for that story, in the image you see here.) He didn’t leave our part of the country before realizing a longstanding dream: Turning the Who’s landmark Tommy from a rock opera into a bluegrass showcase. KCUR 89.3’s C.J. Janovy reported on that project last spring, and the audio makes fine, if bittersweet, repeat listening today for anyone around here who got to talk music (or, really, anything else) with Meyers, even for a few minutes.