Kevin "Swing Vote" Costner--actor, Academy Award-winning director, former Orange County resident and apparent musician--has been added to the line-up for Stagecoach, "California's County Music Festival" (the "country Coachella;" it takes place on the Empire Polo Club in Indio the weekend after the big C).Costner fronts a band called Kevin Costner and the Modern West; as far as rootsy musical projects from middle-aged actors, it's better than Val Kilmer's stuff, at least. Costner's debut album, U
It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again.
BILLY JOEL
The Stranger
(Columbia/Legacy)
As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, rock. "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" and "Anthony's Song (Movin' Out)" remain priceless snapshots of Annie Hall-era NYC, the title track bares real teeth, and the Kenny Chesney fave "Only the Good Die Young" -
You may have heard that something called Coachella went down last weekend at the Empire Polo Field about an hour and a half from here in Indio. This weekend, the ground will once again be plagued by people and water bottles, as it's time for the third annual Stagecoach Festival, affectionately known as the "country Coachella." The main stage is called "mane stage." That's adorable, and appropriate given the amount of horses nearby.
