If you were looking to catch popular acts at South By Southwest (SXSW) Music this week in Austin without a conference badge or wristband, there was no need to queue up for a slim chance to catch an oversubscribed official evening showcase. Thanks to the hundreds of unofficial daytime parties and other events, there were plenty of options for free music and (and sometimes free food) for all.

You could check out some of the hottest acts in town just by getting up early. Each weekday during the music conference, KGSR Austin produced a daily live radio show in the lobby bar at the Four Seasons Hotel. The morning broadcasts, a South By Southwest tradition, offered conference attendees and locals alike the chance to get a taste of some of the festival’s most popular acts (plus breakfast tacos and pastries) from 6-10 a.m. in exchange for a $5 donation to a local charity. KGSR’s performers this year included John Hiatt, She and Him, BoDeans, the Texas Tornados, Jakob Dylan, The Court Yard Hounds, Rogue Wave and Raul Malo.

In previous years, Lyle Lovett has been known to sit in with the KGSR crew to read the early-morning weather forecast, although a tour of New Zealand and Australia kept him from his meteorological duties this go around.

The KGSR broadcasts have grown dramatically in popularity and now regularly spill out of the lobby bar into the packed foyer of the hotel. Among the celebrities spotted this year during the morning broadcasts were Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray.

Once breakfast was over, endless opportunities for unofficial musical entertainment presented themselves.

The always-popular New West party, which moved this year from its longstanding location at Club DeVille on Red River to The Belmont on West 6th Street, seemed right at home in its new site. The club's multi-tiered, indoor/outdoor structure offered improved sight lines and better acoustics. George Fontaine, Jr., head of New West’s Athens office, pointed out the new location offers the added benefit of avoiding sound bleed-over from the heavy metal acts at a next-door party, a frequent issue in the old locale.

Performers included New West recording artists Buddy Miller and Hiatt, who took the stage wearing the same dapper jacket and tie that he had worn for his early-morning KGSR appearance at the Four Seasons. In addition to songs from his new album, The Open Road, Hiatt and his Combo blazed through favorites like “Tennessee Plates” and “Riding With The King.”

New West had extra reason to celebrate this year following their Academy Award win. The label’s Crazy Heart Soundtrack claimed the prize for Best Original Song for “The Weary Kind” by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.

Across town, right beside the former site of the Armadillo World Headquarters, the mecca for music lovers in Austin in the 1970s, things were hopping at Threadgill’s. Music Fog, an Internet video blog venture started by former XM Radio Americana program director Jessie Scott, filmed a four-day schedule filled with talent for future music videos.

Texas music legend Joe Ely shared the Music Fog bill with Americana luminaries Ray Wylie Hubbard and Gurf Morlix. As patrons crowded into the back room, Ely performed acoustic versions of favorites like “Slow You Down,” “A Little Like Love,” David Halley’s “Hard Livin’“ and Billy Joe Shaver’s “Live Forever.” Post-concert, Ely greeted fans, posed for photos, and stuck around for lunch with friends. Among the many well-wishers stopping by the table to greet Ely were noted music critic and rock historian Dave Marsh, who had just finished interviewing Smokey Robinson at the SXSW keynote session, and Peyton Wimmer, head of Austin Art and Music Partnership.

Ely will perform in Houston April 17, when he brings a full band featuring guitarist David Grissom to the Houston International Festival.

South Congress also presented many fine options for daytime entertainment indoors and out, with many of the largest crowds gathering for the show in the parking lot of the trendy Hotel San Jose.

At the South By San Jose Parking Lot Party stage, musicians performed all afternoon and into the early evening. Billy Joe Shaver, who headlined the line-up, entertained the San Jose crowd with a raucous set that included “The Hottest Thing In Town,” “Try and Try Again” and “Honeybee.”

Long famous as one of Texas’ finest songwriters (recorded by everyone from Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings to Elvis Presley),Shaver recently got some unwanted notoriety in connection with charges stemming from a 2007 Waco shooting incident. According to the Austin American Statesman, Shaver’s trial date has been set for April 5, when he will be represented by superstar Houston attorney Dick DeGuerin.