Spotlight: Mary Lou Lord

Chances are, you've seen Mary Lou Lord standing on some corner of Sixth Street during that late-night stumble in or out of the downtown entertainment district. It's been difficult to miss her, after all; she's been staging her own SXSW showcases for 10 years now.

"I began busking at SXSW when I was on tour with Elliott Smith," Lord explains. "We were both new artists and we didn't have showcases, so we decided to have our own little showcase right out there on Sixth Street."

Over the years, Lord, who hails from the Boston area, has probably experienced more of SXSW than those of us who've spent the week rushing from club to club: "[Busking's] a completely independent form of getting your art to people without any middlemen."

Artistic integrity aside, who are the best tippers? And why hasn't some label bigwig scooped her up from that damn corner?

"The best tippers are usually the ones who've had a drink before stumbling upon me busking," she says. "The best tippers are folks that appreciate what I'm doing and were moved by it somehow.

"Once, a guy came to watch me each night, and he kept bugging me to call his 'partner,' who had been watching me from a balcony at the Driskill," Lord continues. When she asked why the partner wouldn't come down, the man explained that his partner was Neil Young. "Knowing that Neil Young watched a set or two of mine and wanted to meet me was kind of a cool thing."

While you have the opportunity to see Lord in a SXSW-sanctioned showcase this year – backed by Emergency Music, one of the acts recently signed to her management company – it wouldn't hurt to tip a beloved festival tradition. Besides, you never know who you'll run into.