Veteran acts Echo & the Bunnymen and Devo in recent weeks have been revisiting late 70′s as well as early to mid-80′s classic albums with performances in Los Angeles. The Pixies, during their stand of three nights at Hollywood Palladium, extended this to the latter part of the 1980s with their set based on “Doolittle,” the band’s major label debut from 1989 which paved the way for “Nevermind” by Nirvana. The tour, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the album, earlier this fall hit Europe and is currently working through a nine city US itinerary with 22 shows.

The album showcasing shows are providing fans with an opportunity of seeing some of their old favorite bands performing albums from these acts creative peaks. However there isn’t a lot of room for surprises or spontaneity. If you know the running order of the album, you know which songs are coming up next. So you need to give the Pixies some credit for flipping this concept around by playing the B-sides as well. They opened their set on November 5 with four non-album tracks before moving into the main event.

New dates for Tim McGraw’s massive tour of North America next year to support “Southern Voice,” his latest studio set, continue to roll out. Since the last check, the country singer has added an additional four shows to the seven month tour, including a February 6 kick off concert in San Antonio, TX. Other added performances include Houston (3/8/10), Milwaukee (6/24/10), and Cadott, WI (6/25/10). The number of tour stops is currently up to 58 running through August of next year.

There are a scant two weeks before the release of John Mayer’s latest album “Battle Studies,” and the promotion is in full swing. Mayer announced an ambitious 40-city spring tour to support the latest effort. The tour will launch in Charleston, South Carolina on February 8 and continue through April 10 in Chicago. Mayer has enlisted Michael Franti & Spearhead as support. The John Mayer website is providing a presale ticket opportunity to anyone who pre-orders the new album.

Alicia Keys is one of the most recent performers that has been added to the Latin Grammy Awards 10th Annual telecast lineup. Reik, a current nominee, and Daniela Mercury, past Latin Grammy winner, are also among those recently added for the annual awards show. The show will held on November 5 in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay Events Center. Several collaborative numbers will be featured including an Alejandro Sanz and Alicia Keys special duet.

A pair of country icons are hitting the road together in 2010 — George Strait and Reba McEntire. The duo are eyeing the biggest arenas in the land to host their upcoming “Twang” tour. The fun starts in Baltimore on January 22 and will stop at 18 cities before wrapping up in Des Moines on April 10.

At only nineteen years old Taylor Swift, country music superstar, is continuing to shatter records. This week it is Billboard’s albums chart. “Taylor Swift,” her debut album, became this century’s longest charting album. This week the self-titled debut of Swift will have spent 157 total weeks on the albums chart and becomes the album that has spent the most weeks on the Top 200 Billboard Albums. “All the Right Reasons,” the 2005 album from Nickelback, previously held the record at 156 weeks.

Is there anything hotter than Taylor Swift these days? She’s everywhere you turn around from awards shows across the gamut of musical genres to selling out arenas from coast-to-coast. It seems the successful Taylor Swift tour isn’t about to come to an end anytime soon. She will be returning from Australia in March to dive into a 38-city trek that starts with Tampa on March 4. The extensive tour will continue on through June 2 where she will tentatively wrap up in Washington DC. Several cities will be lucky enough to score a double dose of Taylor including Philadelphia (3/18-19), Detroit (3/25,3/27), Denver (4/6-7), Los Angeles (4/15-16), Newark (5/12-13), Uniondale (5/14-15), Toronto (5/21-22) and Houston (5/25-26).