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* The Travis Wilburys
Carrying on a long-standing country-music tradition, Randy Travis is working on an album of duets, Heroes & Friends, that teams him with Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, Tammy Wynette, B.B. King, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Clint Eastwood, Merle Haggard, Vern Gosdin, and Roy Rogers (above, with Dale Evans), who, naturally, will join Travis on ''Happy Trails.'' Look for the album in January.
* Nightmare on '70s Revival Street Chic and Styx have each reunited. Mike Oldfield is working on a musical ''sequel'' to Tubular Bells, best known as the theme for The Exorcist. And Pravda Records, a Chicago label, is planning a September K-Tel tribute album on which both local and national acts (possibly including Mojo Nixon and Camper Van Beethoven, above) will remake such Earth Shoe-era schlock classics as ''Kung Fu Fighting'' and ''The Night the Lights Went out in Georgia.''
* 2 Live Suit
The force is apparently not with Luke Skyywalker (yes, with two y's), aka Luther Campbell. The leader of the controversial Florida rap group 2 Live Crew-and head of Skyywalker Records Inc.-has been hit with a $300 million trademark infringement lawsuit by George Lucas' Lucasfilm Ltd. Lucas' attorney says Campbell and his group have soiled the name of the beloved sci-fi hero of Star Wars with their explicit lyrics, and ''the confusion could be very damaging to the company.''
* Band Names of the Week
Helen Keller Plaid (San Francisco); My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult (Chicago); the Mr. T Experience (Laytonville, Calif.); Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 (Oakland, Calif.).
* Boxed In
Due by year's end are multi-record, boxed-set retrospectives on the Bee Gees, Joan Baez, Phil Spector, Elton John, James Brown, Derek & the Dominos, the Doors, Kiss, the Everly Brothers, Neil Young, Jeff Beck, and Jack Kerouac.
