AUSTIN, Texas -- At South By Southwest 2007, I went to Jovitta’s, a south Austin Mexican restaurant, to see a band I’d only vaguely heard of that had Augie Meyers of the Sir Douglas Quintet scheduled to play with it.

That band was the Krayolas, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them every year since. During that time, I’ve also become friends with Hector Saldana, the band’s frontman and primary songwriter.

A fine rock ‘n’ roll outfit, the Krayolas play the real stuff real good and, like every band worth hearing, put their own spin on the music.

In their case, it's not just Sir Doug Tex-Mex rock ‘n’ roll. The music -- and lyrics -- reflect the band’s home town of San Antonio.

So when the Krayolas’ cover The Ramones' “I Want to Be Your Boyfriend,” they swing the punk a little and sing in English and Spanish. An instrumental, which features some whistling, is titled “Canicas,” after a game of marbles played on the West Side.

That’s also the title of the Krayolas’ new album, which made up most of its showcase set, with “Catherine,” one of their best songs ever, thrown in for good measure.

Two other notable songs from the show and the record are “Tony Tormenta (The Ballad of Tony the Storm),” a powerful narrative about the life and death of “the cruelest of the druglords "twas ever born;” and “Le Inundacion de Pledras Negres,” a rocked-up cover of a corrido written by Don Santiago Jimenez Sr. that features his son, Flaco, on accordion.

Throw in The-Kinks-gone-to-San-Antonio “Lazy Afternoon,” and you’ve got one of the best, if not the best, record yet from the Krayolas.

You don’t have to take my word for it. “Canicas” is available for free download at Amazon mp3.

Meeting Maria

Every year, I seem to meet someone I’d never imagine meeting. This year, it was Maria Elena Holly, Buddy Holly’s wife.

I snagged an invitation to a pool-side party thrown by the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation to announce the foundation’s first scholarship winner and the establishment of the Buddy Holly “Learning the Game” SXSW prize -- $10,000, the loan of a replica of the guitar on which Buddy wrote his songs and legal and managerial services. That prize will be awarded beginning in 2014.

That’s in keeping with Maria’s efforts to continue to build Buddy’s legacy and to help young musicians avoid some of the difficulties that befell Holly in the 1950s and continue to plague newcomers to the music business today.

When I was introduced to Maria, a very gracious lady, we spoke briefly about South By Southwest -- her parting words: “I hope you can get around. It’s really congested out there.”

Indeed it is. In fact, SXSW may very well now be too big for its own good. I'll have more on that next week.

The best SWAG

SWAG (Stuff We All Get) is common at all conventions. But SXSW has its own special brand of freebies, especially now that the interactive portion of the festival has taken over the trade show.

By fa, the coolest thing I picked up was a portrait taken of me on an iPad then transformed into text from The New York Times. It even came in a little cardboard frame. I didn’t spring for the subscription.

I also got a pair of wooden in-the-ear headphones, a gizmo that is supposed to let you play guitar through an IPhone, two stocking caps, two baseball caps, a bunch of pens and guitar picks, and some Post-It Notes the size of an album cover.