After a long, cold winter of labor disputes, lockouts, and a few months where it looked like we might not have a football season this  year, the 2011 NFL season is just about ready to begin.

And before the Packers and Saints finally take the field for the first game on September 8, some of music’s biggest stars will celebrate the new season with this year’s NFL Kickoff Concert, featuring performances from Maroon 5, Kid Rock, and Lady Antebellum.

The lineup follows 2010′s Kickoff Concert, which featured the Dave Matthews Band, Taylor Swift, and Harry Connick, Jr., so the performers have some fairly big shoes to fill — but with millions of records sold and handfuls of hits between them, this year’s trio has plenty of star power of its own.

For Lady Antebellum, the show will be another high-profile opportunity to promote their upcoming album, ‘Own the Night,’ due for release just a few days after the concert. Not that they need that much help getting the word out — the album’s first single, ‘Just a Kiss,’ has already gone to number one, and its follow-up, ‘We Owned the Night,’ is currently racing up the top 30.

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