The ROOTS, YELLOWCARD, JERMAINE DUPRI, the WALLFLOWERS, FAT JOE, DAMIEN MARLEY, STAIND and COLLECTIVE SOUL will perform free shows during the Ford-sponsored Fusion Flash Concert series. Fans can register at fusionflashconcerts.com to receive emails disclosing the date and venue for the performances . . . CLAY AIKEN will kick off the Jukebox Summer Tour 2005 on July 28th in Tom's River, New Jersey. The twenty-five-city trek will see Aiken performing Fifties and Sixties standards as well as previewing songs from his upcoming album . . . PATTI SMITH was presented with the Commander of the Order of the Arts and Letters, one of France's top honors, on Sunday. The New York rocker is currently planning an album of covers of songs by BOB DYLAN, the GRATEFUL DEAD, EDITH PIAF and others . . . KELLY CLARKSON has postponed sold-out shows off her Behind These Hazel Eyes tour in New Orleans and Pensacola, Florida, due to Hurricane Dennis . . . BRIAN McKNIGHT will sing the national anthem at the Major League Baseball All-Star game at Detroit's Comerica Park on July 12th . . . The MILES DAVIS tribute CD Fusion for Miles -- featuring guitarists WARREN HAYNES, ERIC JOHNSON and BILL FRISELL -- is due August 2nd . . . KANYE WEST, BUSTA RHYMES, NAS, FAT JOE, CIARA, LIL JON, MOS DEF and LUDACRIS will perform at designer Marc Ecko's Getting Up Festival on August 13th and 14th in Toronto . . . Capitol Records will release the five-CD/DVD box set, The BAND: A Musical History, on September 27th. The set will feature 111 tracks and thirty-seven previously unreleased recordings from the veteran rockers . . .

RICK JAMES Forever, an album's worth of material the funk legend was working on when he died last August, hits stores August 16th. The CD includes the new tracks "Freak Baby," "When Your Body's Mine," "Sapphire" and "Sex Slave" . . . MARIANNE FAITHFULL recently suffered a heart attack, causing her to pull out of the film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. The singer is currently recovering . . . The DECEMBERISTS kick off their summer tour on July 17th at the Intonation Festival in Chicago. The tour wraps up on October 30th in New Orleans . . . 311 has pushed back the release date for their new album, Don't Tread on Me, to August 16th. The rockers hit the road on July 26th in Santa Cruz, California, finishing up in El Paso, Texas, on September 15th . . . LINDA PERRY will re-release her 1996 album, In Flight, on October 11th . . . ROGER WATERS' opera, Ca Ira, will be released on CD/DVD September 27th. The set will include a DVD documenting the making of the opera as well as a sixty-page booklet with lyrics and illustrations . . . Singer FRANCES LANGFORD died Monday at her Florida home. Langford was known for her song "I'm in the Mood for Love," written in 1935. She was ninety-one years old . . . Texas singer-songwriter STEPHEN BRUTON will release his fifth album, From the Five, on July 26th . . .