Three years have passed since alternative rock band The Graduate released “Anhedonia.” Now, the band is on a record label (Razor & Tie) and is touring across the country.

"I am calling from paradise," husky voiced singer Ivete Sangalo said when she phoned from her weekend home in Bahia, a large state on the eastern side of Brazil. It was a rare moment of peace and quiet for the 38-year-old South American superstar who has sold out concerts all over the world.

“It’s a dying art,” says local emcee Nabo Rawk, describing the state of hip-hop. The wordsmith and music producer recently released his third solo album, “Bizarro World,” which reflects the gritty and nostalgic sounds of hip-hop’s prehistoric times.

Katy Perry is a California Gurl all the way. She’s undeniable, sporting her Daisy Dukes and bikini on top — or whatever else she’s wearing, e.g., whipped cream-shooting bra and blue hair from the video for “California Gurls.”

When it comes to young bluesmen, there are lots of pretenders and few contenders. Success and affirmation do not come overnight, as Joe Louis Walker can attest. Which is one reason Walker, 50, is happy to share his hard-earned headliner status with a younger guitarslinger like Murali Coryell.

In the years since her most famous song, “One of Us,” became a radio hit in 1995, Joan Osborne’s kept busy and kept a low profile, and grown her fan base in pockets.

At the height of the hard rock era – with heavy sounds and serious, dramatic lyrics - came a band from Athens, Ga. Their signature style then as now is marked by frenetic, retro outfits and hairdos, syncopated keyboards and disarmingly daffy verses about interplanetary travel in the name of love, an ungrateful dog dyed green, a rock lobster, and one’s own private Idaho.

Darius Rucker may be one of the few people who turned to country music and only then decided to stop wearing a cowboy hat. “I wore a cowboy hat with Hootie for the last six years we played,” Rucker said, referring to his first band, Hootie and the Blowfish. “But coming over to country, I consciously decided not to do that over here.”

Bun E. Carlos no longer resembles the crazed drummer donning his iconic shirt-and-tie combo during Cheap Trick concerts, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

It’s a long way from CBGB, the legendary New York City rock club where Blondie first cut its teeth, to the infield of the Illinois State Fair Grandstand, where they’ll be playing Friday. It took the “new wave” band 35 years to get here, and although its members may have never envisioned such a career trajectory, they’re happy to be making the trip.

So you want to get to know Blake Shelton, find out about the guy behind the country music star? You don’t need to schmooze his publicist for access. No need to track down his family and former classmates.

You’d expect that a band would be excited at the news that its songs have been added to the “Guitar Hero” playlist. But in a recent phone interview, Brent Smith of Shinedown downplayed the occasion of three of the band’s songs being picked up by “Guitar Hero.”

Late last year, Lady Antebellum was merely a hot country act. Since then, however, Lady A has become a hot pop act, too.

Judy Collins’ voice resonates through 50 years of music, traveling between the worlds of folk, classical and popular – not to mention a few Broadway hits.

Because Taylor Hicks never achieved the mega-stardom some of his fellow former "Idols" have, you might be tempted to lump him in with the "Where Are They Now?" set, but that would be unfair and — more importantly — just plain wrong.

Lead guitarist Max Perenchio opens up about this new band.

When Arcade Fire turned up in 2004, it was with nothing less than the most uplifting reflection on mortality ever put to record, the elegiac yet hopeful “Funeral.” Now they’re back in concept-album territory with “The Suburbs," and their exploration of the ennui and misspent youth in the rolling developments beyond America’s cities is almost as fascinating.

Twelve years ago, Rick Springfield was mostly a pleasant memory for fans of 1980s Top 40 music and the soap opera “General Hospital.” But that time out of the limelight came to an end in 1998 when he was profiled in VH-1’s “Behind the Music.” Since then he’s released three albums of original rock tunes plus a covers album to go with his ’80s classics, and he’s playing two or three concerts a week in support of the 2-year-old “Venus In Overdrive.”

If you start a band, one of the first orders of business is to come up with a name. The next order of business: explaining to everyone how you came up with the name.

This summer’s concert season has seen a bevy of attractive deals, as more and more acts and venues react to the struggling economy with lower ticket prices and reduced service charges. But the best deal of all is the Creed tour.