National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

Friday saw another world music showcase at the Copa (which lies near the incomparable Las Manitas breakfast counter on a soon-to-be demolished block where a Marriot hotel is slated to rise, vulture-like, from the rubble). That night's gig featured a host of younger, US-based acts just breaking onto the national world music scene. Rana Santacruz kicked things off with an inspired set that fused Mexican rancheras with traditional Irish sounds – not unlike the Pogues in their "Pistol for Paddy Garcia" mode. Singer/bandleader Rana calls the sound "Irish Mariachi" – and the crowd, though sparse, definitely thought he was onto something.

After the show, Rana offered up a few thoughts on his SXSW experience. "SXSW is great and humbling at the same time," he says. "You arrive to Austin feeling like a rock-star and suddenly you realize that you're only a tiny little name that shares space with other 3,000 tiny little names on the back of the SXSW T-shirt. After that you get on stage and feel like a star again only to walk into the bar next door and hear an amazing band that makes you realize the amount of work you still need to do."

Next came a slightly disconnected, emotionally raw set from New York-based, Latin alternative singer/songwriter Annie Cordero, who was without her usual backing band and making due quite admirably under the circumstances. Cordero, usually found behind the drums of the alternative Mexican band Pistolero, stepped out front with a guitar to demonstrate her considerable songwriting skills.

And the slightly rocky start to her set didn't diminish Cordero's enthusiasm any. "Austin is a great music town any time of year, but during SXSW it's really incredible," She said. "The crowds are really open-minded. Our whole set was in Spanish and people were singing along anyway! They are true music lovers and are looking for good music no matter what language the singing is in - which is really nice."

Cordero was followed by San Franciscan sensation Rupa and the April Fishes - a truly cross-cultural ensemble led by diminutive firecracker Rupa Marya (pictured). The group's whimsical, polyglot mashup of gypsy jazz and chanson with tangos, bossa novas, and Bollywood kitsch – sung in a babble of languages – instigates a whole new variety of post-modern chamber music. And the crowd seemed to eat it up.

Says Mayra: "SXSW was a whirlwind of sounds, a carnival of musicians. My favorite parts were hearing amazing bands from around the world… playing in the same place together, a kind of musical Olympics. It was good to see the connections between what we are doing as artists, what we are responding to, tying us by loose threads around the world."

Rupa was followed by New York's own Pistolera – one of my personal hometown favorites – who put on their usual high-energy set of punked-up, weepin' in your tequila rancheras, boleros and other Mexican favorites. The boleros kept coming, too, courtesy of San Francisco's Cuban Cowboys, who played a raucous set of countrified Cuban favorites and originals. The evening was topped off by Brazilian funk outfit Bat Makumba, also from San Franciso.

Meanwhile, across town at The Driscoll, one of the biggest buzz acts of the weekend - French-Israeli chanteuse Yael Naim - was giggling her way through an intimate set that culminated with her hit "New Soul" – you know, that song from the new Mac commercial that everyone is talking about? Yeah, that.

But I had ducked out of both venues to check out perhaps the biggest buzz act of this year's SXSW. A band fresh from its debut on Saturday Night Live and so well-hyped (Spin magazine's banner headline declared them "The Best New Band of the Year... Already?") that the inevitable backlash had already set in. I'm talking, of course, of the dreaded Vampire Weekend – four fresh-scrubbed Columbia University grads that dress in tennis whites and play passable indie rock spiked with the occasional African guitar riff and useful grammar instructions.

I hadn't planned on seeing these guys, but I had the curious experience of being repeatedly asked my opinion of them "from a world music perspective" (is there such a thing?) whenever anybody found out what kind of music I covered. So I managed to catch a bit of their show at fabled Austin music venue Antone's (I had wandered in there earlier in the week to have a drink and buy a T-Shirt for my sister, and accidentally caught a few horrifying minutes of Billy Bob Thornton's band). My professional opinion? Cute, but "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" isn't exactly the hard stuff…

Click here to read Part Five.