ACL 2021: I have no clue how to do this

Haha - I was going back through drafts and just cleaning things up before the 2023 writing project begins, and came across this.  No clue why I never published it in the first place.  Welcome back to the weirdness of 2021!!!

Howdy team!  Welcome back from a year+ of weirdness, and no concerts, and few albums, and trying to decide whether live streams are okay or if they suck.  As far as I can tell, ACL will go on as planned in October.  But how do I do my usual inspection of artists to figure out who might be coming along to the Fest?  I'd usually look at major album releases, but a ton of artists pushed off their album releases because of the virus.  I'd usually look at the big tours, but all of those evaporated last year.  I'd usually look at other Festival lineups, but most of those are either retreads of recent ACL lineups (like Firefly, with Billie Eilish, The Strokes, Tame Impala, and Lizzo as their top four, or Bonnaroo, with Lizzo, Foo Fighters, Tame Impala, and Tyler, the Creator (?!?!) as their top four) or are now slated to happen when ACL is happening (New Orleans Jazz Fest, Outside Lands, and a lot of other smaller ones).  Coachella might have just bagged it for the year - they had been scheduled for dates in 2021 but now the web says looking like 2022.  And when Lolla's lineup comes out, that is usually a good indicator of what we have coming.  But despite their dates being at the end of July, still no lineup announcement from our friends in Chicago.  I'll sometimes scour radio playlists, or Shazam data, or dig into all sorts of other nooks and crannies to find stuff that might be coming along.  But everything is messed up!

So, what are we going to do?  I think I'll try to put together two guess posts - one about tours, because some people are touring again, and one based on mega artists.  I was having a discussion with a friend the other day about ACL this year, and my gut feeling is that we'll get something really big this year.  If most tours are limited, or waiting, or otherwise weird, this is the perfect time to hit up someone big who doesn't necessarily tour anymore, or someone who has seemed too big for ACL in the past.  Taylor.  Bruce.  The Stones.  Madonna.  Dear God, please let it be, an R.E.M. reunion.  I've done some thoughts like that in the past, but this year feels like a good one to revive that line of thought.

Let's dig into it, and hope that the shows go on!