Sheryl Crow received an honorary doctoral degree on Saturday during the commencement ceremony at Southeast Missouri State University . . . The songs from Shaggy's hit album, Hotshot, will be remixed for Hotshot Ultramix, due February 12th . . . Musiq Soulchild made a guest appearance at Stevie Wonder's sixth annual House Full of Toys Benefit Concert on Saturday in Los Angeles . . . Everlast tapped Jane's Addiction's Stephen Perkins, the Deftones' Stephen Carpenter and members of Cypress Hill for a new all-star band, Mary Jane's Boyfriends, which performed in Los Angeles on December 15th . . . The Florida Orchestra filed a lawsuit against Arista Records to claim royalties from the re-release of Whitney Houston's rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" . . .

Five classic Johnny Cash albums from the late-Fifties through the mid-Sixties, will be issued on CD for the first time on March 12th . . . Natalie Merchant will be featured on Up Close and Personal With Natalie Merchant, a televised concert to air on December 21st on Oxygen . . . A new Uncle Tupelo compilation -- consisting of songs from the band's first three, out-of-print albums and previously unreleased material -- will be released on March 12th . . . Tantric have landed the opening slot on Creed's tour, which kicks off on January 16th in Atlanta . . . Alan Jackson will release a new album on January 15th. It will include the hit single "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" . . . The Chemical Brothers will kick off a U.K. tour on March 18th at the Birmingham Academy . . . Travis Tritt will release two sixteen-track compilations, The Rockin' Side and The Lovin' Side, on February 5th . . .

(December 17, 2001)