CLEAR YOUR CALENDAR: We love it when fans get a half year to think about a major music extravaganza. Well, thinking about a major music extravaganza can begin well before the half-year mark, but when acts get announced and line-ups get lined up, that's when the planning and dreaming and discussing can really kick into gear. Stagecoach, country music's starry as all get-out springtime party, just released its initial line-up of its 2012 festival, and the headliners are plenty headlinery. Brad Paisley is on the top row; so is Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, and Blake Shelton. And hoo, they have a lot of people already set to go. Kenny Rogers? Alabama? Hi and hi. And a few surprises, too: Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers will play, and alt-'50s-retro heartthrob Chris Isaak, too.
THE DATES: Friday, April 27 through Sunday, April 29. It's in Indio, as you well know, and you well know you'll need to hop on those hotel reservations and gather together your co-attendees. You have a week or so to line all that up, or at least get it started; tickets go on sale on Friday, Oct. 28 at 10 a.m. A three-dayer starts at $149, if you want to be there for the whole shebang.
