It's still a work in progress, but if Hawaii can send another official contingent of musicians to next year's South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, it may help build a groundswell of interest in what the islands have to offer on a national level.

With much of the activity occurring along the city's main strip of Sixth Street, the island musicians—Kona Chang, Tavana McMoore, Sabrina Velazquez, longtime ska rockers Pimpbot, and Anuhea Jenkins with the Green band—had to be content to play venues off the beaten track. Still, they networked to the best of their abilities, pulled off three showcases together and even scored some impromptu gigs on their own.

From March 17 through 20, the isle performers played comfortable outdoor shows on the rooftop of the large flagship Whole Foods Market and at the Austin restaurant of Roy's. Just several yards away and across the street from Roy's is Submerged, a club/lounge that hosted an evening highlighted by McMoore and his band's blues-rock blast attack.

McMoore and his management helped get the rest of the Hawaii musicians their own gigs at Maria Maria, one of a chain of Mexican restaurants created by Carlos Santana and Chef Roberto Santibanez.

Velazquez was fortunate enough to get a paycheck for her work in the bar area of the outlying Wyndham Garden Hotel as part of SXSW's Second Play Stages, where the conference picks a handful of music acts to do bonus shows.

Speaking of official, maybe Kamuela Kahoano and Friends of Adam, two local acts that went to Austin even though they weren't invited per se, will be lucky enough to join a hoped-for third consecutive group of Hawaii acts, who would attend South by Southwest in 2011.

THERE'S NO WAY anyone could have seen all of the acts they wanted to see at SXSW—close to 1,400 of them were packed into Austin for four days, playing from noon into the wee hours of the morning. But I was fortunate enough to catch some favorites and discover new music during my stay:

» Jakob Dylan and Three Legs: The Pure Volume House, as is evident by the name, wasn't the greatest venue for Dylan's quiet and midtempo music, but his new direction in country-folk sounded dreamy and intriguing. The Wallflowers are all pau, but I'm looking forward to his new album to be released later this month, “;Women and Country,”; produced by award-winner T Bone Burnett.

» The Morning Benders: I caught this group during a brief day gig at the legendary punk-rock club Emo's, thanks to Velazquez's accompanist Ryan Miyashiro. Last month the Berkeley, Calif., indie band fronted by Chris Chu released one of the better albums so far this year, “;Big Echo.”;

» The KCRW showcase at the Galaxy Room Backyard: Despite the late start of all the sets, the Los Angeles radio station presented a fine group of acts. Of those, I caught Danish band Choir of Young Believers, British faves Fanfarlo, Ozomatli (who, even with its power rudely cut off, finished its set amid the crowd on a rousing note) and soul revue Fitz & the Tantrums, featuring the powerhouse backing vocals of the hip-and-tambourine shaking of Noelle Scaggs.

» The NPR day party at the Parish: The contemporary string quartet Brooklyn Rider got one of the loudest and most appreciative audience responses I heard at SXSW, and they were followed by a smart teenage power-pop band from Chicago, the Smith Westerns.

» A pleasant day on the grounds of the French Legation Museum: This was a little slice of music heaven about a mile away from the downtown chaos, where I caught Dengue Fever, a personal favorite that serves up prime Cambodian psychedelic pop-rock, as well as Mayer Hawthorne and the County, whose retro-soul act graced the Pipeline Cafe back in February.