Indigo Girls, Indigenous, Bonnie Raitt and Joan Baez will take part in the Honor the Earth Tour 2000. The tour, which began in 1993, raises money for American Indian groups to help them call attention to issues including the slaughter of buffalo and concerns about nuclear waste storage. These tours collectively have raised $465,000, which was distributed to 65 American Indian groups. This year's monthlong tour will kick off Sept. 30 in Billings, Mont., and close Oct. 4 in Missoula, Mont. ...

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is sponsoring "Got My Mojo Working: Muddy Waters and Modern Blues," as part of its American Music Masters series. The series will focus on Muddy Waters, inducted to the hall of fame in March. Waters is a key figure in the evolution of the blues, from its birthplace in the Mississippi Delta to one of its high-water eras, in Chicago in the '50s. The event will include a daylong conference Sept. 23 on Waters' legacy at Case Western Reserve University and two concerts Sept. 23 and 24. Other events include a symposium at CWRU, workshops for college and high-school students, and a blues film series. The series runs Sept. 18–24. ...

Shannon Curfman will appear on "Access Hollywood" later this month and also will be featured in next month's issue of George magazine. Fans can catch Curfman performing alongside John Mellencamp and Neil Young at Farm Aid next month in Washington, D.C. Last week the guitarist and singer/songwriter, who just turned 15, flew home to Fargo, N.D., to play her first show there in almost a year. She's also taped an interview for House of Blues radio that will run later this year. ...

Robert Lockwood Jr. , Homesick James, Henry Townsend and Honeyboy Edwards will pay tribute to Delta blues legend Robert Johnson in two performances Sept. 23 at B.B. King's New York club. The group, which has been called the American blues equivalent of Cuba's Buena Vista Social Club, includes the only living contemporaries of the late bluesman. ...

Buddy and Julie Miller have been tapped to open for Emmylou Harris for the following dates: San Francisco (Sept. 26); Portland, Ore. (Sept. 28); Seattle (Sept. 29); and Vancouver, British Columbia (Sept. 30). Buddy Miller, alone, will then open some October shows for Harris, including: Denver (Oct. 3); Minneapolis (Oct. 5); Chicago (Oct. 6); Grand Rapids, Mich. (Oct. 7); and Columbus, Ohio (Oct. 11). ...

The Blues Foundation scored a victory this month in its efforts to save the Dockery Plantation from a Mississippi Department of Transportation highway development plan. In a call to action, the foundation asked readers to voice their opinions; the response has persuaded the MSDOT to consider an alternate route. ...

John Hiatt will release streaming video of a song he performed during a taping of PBS' "Austin City Limits." The song, from his Sept. 26 release Crossing Muddy Waters, will not be aired with the program in October. To watch the free video, head over to EMusic.com. ... Sara Hickman, Victoria Williams and Rain Perry will participate in Agility: A Women's Music Festival in Ojai, Calif. The songwriters will perform to benefit the Arthritis Foundation. ... Emmylou Harris, the Dubliners and Loudon Wainwright III are performing Aug. 24–27 at the T-nder Festival in Denmark. Also performing will be Fairport Convention, Doug MacLean and Great Big Sea. ...

Back in the States, Nanci Griffith, Natalie MacMaster, Utah Phillips and Mary Gauthier will perform at the 39th Annual Philadelphia Folk Festival in Schwenksville, Pa. The festival will run Aug. 25–27 and feature puppetry, dancing and craft workshops. For more information visit www.folkfest.org. ...

Comotion have announced a tour of the West Coast in support of their debut album, Head West, due Sept. 12 on SCI Fidelity Records. The project, which features bluegrass and jazz artists such as Darol Anger, Aaron Johnston and Tye North, will kick off its tour Sept. 29 in Las Vegas and wrap up Oct. 8 in Vancouver, British Columbia. ...

Jimmie Lee Robinson, 69, will participate in a "48 Hours Blues Vigil" in Chicago from 6 p.m. Aug. 25 to 6 p.m. Aug. 27 to protest the University of Chicago's plans to tear down the city's Maxwell Street area. Maxwell Street was known in recent decades for its open-air markets and as a haven and stamping ground for Chicago's burgeoning community of blues musicians. Carey Bell, Mike Bloomfield, Big John Wrencher and Johnny Young were all, at one time or another, familiar faces there. For more information about the issue, visit www.openair.org/maxwell/preserve.html. ...

Fans of Emmylou Harris, Dave Matthews and Buddy and Julie Miller who missed the May 6 "Songwriters Special" on the PBS show Austin City Limits will have a chance to catch the show again Aug. 26. Also being rebroadcast Sept. 2 are performances by Joe Ely and Indigenous. ...

Antone's, Austin's home of the blues, is beginning to expand its bookings beyond its traditional fare these days. The Jungle Brothers and KRS-One have upcoming shows there, for instance. According to Kathleen Bonnicksen, who is leaving her post as assistant manger of the club, her replacement, Lorraine Lamont, is open to booking more hip-hop artists because Antone's has "always been supportive of all kinds of African-American music." ...

Lightnin' Charlie and the Bluegrass Circle will perform at this year's National Slide Guitar Festival and International Music and Dance Festival. The two festivals have combined for the first time to bring performances from a variety of musical genres, crafts, competition and food to the mountains of Gray, Tenn. The festival runs Sept. 23–24. For more information, visit www.slideguitarfest.com. ...

Emmylou Harris announced that she and Gillian Welch recorded a track for a tribute to Townes Van Zandt, to be released on Island Records. The pair, accompanied by guitarist Dave Rawlings, cut Van Zandt's "Snake Song," from his 1978 release Flyin' Shoes. Harris said she chose that song to show off Welch's clawhammer banjo picking. ...

The Jeff Healey Band and Buddy Miles have been added to the lineup at this year's Telluride Blues and Brews Festival on Sept. 15–17 in Telluride, Colo. They'll be joined there by Kenny Wayne Shepherd, the North Mississippi All Stars, Robert Cray and Elvin Bishop. ...

Bluegrass jam band Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, jazz guitarist John Scofield and the David Grisman Quartet are just a few of the performers at the fifth annual Autumn Equinox Music and Arts Festival and Campout. Held in Capon Bridge, W.Va., the three-day festival (Sept. 22–24) also will feature performances by Acoustic Syndicate, Galactic and Tim Reynolds. ...

Mark Olson and the Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers have been signed to Hightone records and are expected to release their first album, My Own Jo Ellen, on Oct. 17. The new musical expedition includes Olson's wife, singer Victoria Williams, and Mike "Raz" Russell. Olson is a founding member of the Jayhawks. ...

Aaron Neville will record a gospel-inspired collection titled Devotion, due Sept. 26. The album will feature a duet with his son Ivan. ... Darden Smith, Slaid Cleaves and the Asylum Street Spankers will play at the Hearts of Arts Blood Drive on Aug. 26 in Austin, Texas. The performance will benefit the Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas. ... Ellis Paul, Sloan Wainwright and Greg Cagno are appearing at the Cutting Edge of Campfire Festival on Labor Day weekend in Cambridge, Mass. For more information visit www.clubpassim.com. ...

Indigo Girl Amy Ray is scheduled to speak at the Nov. 4 Rockrgrl conference in Seattle. Ray and Emily Saliers, the other Indigo Girl, also will perform at a fund-raiser for the American Indian College Fund that same day in New York City, according to their Web site. ...

The just-released series of six 7-inch vinyl singles culled from the hit B.B. King/Eric Clapton album Riding With the King can be ordered from B.B. King direct, at news.bbkingdirect.com. ... A long-awaited Stevie Ray Vaughan box set will be released later this year, according to a representative of Sony Records. Although no exact date has been set, the recordings will be in stores before the holidays. ...

— sonicnet.com staff report