Everyone is aware of the Behind the Music cliché.

VH1 takes a popular rock band with some sort of strife and instantly creates a new episode.

Even bands such as Blues Traveler and Hootie and the Blowfish have their own installments.

But what about a band like Sister Hazel, who comes from the same music scene as Hootie and Blues Traveler and had one of the most popular songs in 1997?

Jeff Beres, bassist for Sister Hazel, explained the answer quite simply. "A lot of bands aren't able to come back from that, but we continued on to find our own version of success."

VH1 wants to hear about drug abuse and inner band turmoil. But Sister Hazel, the band headlining Afterfest 2003 early Sunday morning, still has all of its original members and recently left Universal Records in order to return to its roots.

That's not to say Sister Hazel didn't have its problems. Having a smash single can be the quickest way to creative death.

"It's the curse and the blessing thing," Beres said. "You can't blame people. That's how they define you. It's just a facet of a many-faceted sound we have."

The success of the single "All For You" provided the band with many new opportunities.

"It's a surreal kind of thing to go from a van to a bus with a huge crew packing up your gear," Beres said. "I always said I would pack up my own gear, but you can't. There are too many other obligations."

Beres credits the band members for not letting it all go to their heads.

"A lot of bands break up from that, but we kept people in line," he said.

And now, with "All For You" a distant memory to many top 40 listeners, Sister Hazel has been able to move on and allow its music to evolve.

"We found a place where we've leveled out," Beres said. "Our fan base is strong and the people that enjoy our music are open to us and allow us to write music we want."

Sister Hazel's new album Chasing Daylight is "a good example of our growth," Beres said. The band has begun collaborating on songwriting and arranging.

"It's taken a while, but we've honed in on each other's talents," he said.

This new creative direction has also led the band to pursue a different path than its label Universal Records had in store for them.

"We felt we had so many ideas and so much more we wanted to do," Beres said. "We wanted to get back to our grassroots and put out an album every year instead of every three years. We wanted to do things on our own terms."

Sister Hazel is also finding time to participate in its own charity called Lyrics For Life, started by front man Ken Block. The charity has raised a net profit of $300,000 for Cancer patients during its three years of existence.

"We try to get musicians to write their lyrics on anything," Beres said.

Lyrics for Life has had artists like Queens of the Stone Age and the Beastie Boys sign things from surf boards to barf bags.

The signatures get auctioned off before a charity concert every year.

These are the things that the voyeuristically obsessed Behind the Music overlooks.

Sister Hazel has come a long way since its mid-90s touch of success.

Robyn Ricketts, director of Afterfest, explained that the event strives "to draw Penn State students and people visiting Arts Festival." She said Sister Hazel was chosen because its style of music was appropriate for the event.

"They have a lot of name recognition," said Tim Dorman, sponsorship chair for Afterfest. He expects the band to attract the older alumni crowd.

"They are going to pull a lot of people off the streets downtown," he said.

Sister Hazel will take stage at the HUB lawn 1:45 a.m. Sunday. The show gets underway at 11 p.m. Saturday night with local rock band Axum and alternative rockers SR-71.