The Quad is the venue once again for a summer concert series, presented by the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts and sponsored by Summer Sessions. The concerts are free and open to the public.

July 9 (Thursday) — Alejandro Escovedo, the former country-punk rocker who now performs solo, praised as a passionate, literate, hard-rocking storyteller. Earlier this month Spin magazine praised him as “Best Rock ’n’ Roll Animal (With Strings!)” at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. “Through it all, he bared his heart and scars with equal aplomb, and with a feedback-drenched, dual-guitar attack that evoked the noisy glories of Lou Reed’s classic Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal,” Spin’s correspondent wrote. Escovedo’s latest album. in fact, is titled Real Animal, featuring with “Always a Friend,” “Sister Lost Soul” and “Nuns Song.” He is due to perform here with an acoustic trio. Listen: alejandroescovedo.com.

July 25 (Saturday) — Dengue Fever, a Los Angeles-based indie rock band that sounds like “a Cambodian pop rock psychedelic dance party!” — according to the band’s My Space page. A new documentary, Sleepwalking Through the Mekong, follows the band on its recent journey to Cambodia where the band performed 1960s and ‘70s Cambodian rock ‘n’ roll “in the country where it was created and very nearly destroyed,” according to an online synopsis. In the documentary’s trailer, a band member says the music is based on California surf music, rewritten with Cambodian melodies. The band, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “quite possibly the most original pop band in LA,” has produced three albums: Dengue Fever, Venus on Earth and Escape From the Dragon House. Watch and listen: myspace.com/denguefevermusic and sleepwalkingthroughthemekong.com.

Aug. 14 (Friday) — Rokia Traore, representing a new generation of African musicians who respect tradition but refuse to be bound by it. The award-winning Traoré, backed by her own electric guitar, creates an exquisite, sultry soundscape that blends American soul and blues with her Malian roots. “It all started with a sound inside Rokia Traoré’s head,” according to her Web site. “The most adventurous singer-songwriter in Africa knew that she wanted to create a new musical style that was ‘more modern, but still African, something more blues and rock than my folk guitar.’ Then she heard an old gretsch, the classic electric guitar so beloved by American rockabilly bands back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and played by everyone from Chet Atkins to George Harrison. That was the sound she had been looking for, and it has helped to bring a fresh and startling new dimension to her exquisite and adventurous songs.” Traore, described by The Christian Science Monitor as “Africa’s answer to Joni Mitchell, has four albums to her credit. Watch and listen: myspace.com/rokiatraore.

All shows start at 7:30 p.m., with the Quad opening for picnics at 6:30 p.m. Alcoholic beverages are not permitted.