LAST WEEK, the southern Californian desert was alive with the sound of country music. About 150 miles east of Los Angeles, thousands of country music fans gathered for the 4th Annual Stagecoach Festival in Indio. The two-day event featured a handful of today’s biggest names in country music on the “Mane Stage” as up and comers and legends appeared at satellite stages. While these multi-artist bonanzas don’t pop up around the country, you may want to check out the touring schedule of these artists. They frequently go out on tour with each other, big acts opening for bigger acts, or they invite other country artists with the same gifts of good music and providing fans with a night of pure fun.

This year, the headliners included Jason Aldean, Billy Currington, Brooks & Dunn (in one of their final performances as a duo), Sugarland, Toby Keith and Keith Urban. I showed up at the first night with reportedly 60,000 fans two-stepping, beer drinking and donning a variety of country fashion, from short shorts to tall hats, and everything in between.

Georgia-born Billy Currington was the third to last artist to perform. With his scruffy looks and deep voice, his opened with his current hit “That’s How Country Boys Roll.” Currington jammed through his many hits, closing his one hour set with “Good Directions,” a song about a guy selling “turnip greens on a flatbed truck” which he did not want to record in the first place. It became his most successful to date. He also performed a countrified but soulful version of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” part of a nostalgic trend that would be repeated by other acts.

With each CD release, Sugarland becomes bigger and more creative, taking chances with their music; and fans don’t seem to mind. Lead vocalist Jennifer Nettles belted their hits with her large voice and playful style while the group’s other half, Kristian Bush, mainly on guitar and later dueting with her on the Grammy-winning hit she recorded with Jon Bon Jovi, “Who Says You Can’t Go Home.” Sugarland has made “sampling” other artists’ music a staple of their show and fans erupted the enthusiastically to mixes of Beyonce, The Jackson 5, Neil Diamond and Blondie’s “Heart of Gold” as an encore. As they plugged their current tour and upcoming CD, “The Incredible Machine,” a plane flew above with an electronic sign under its wing plugging Carrie Underwood’s upcoming October engagement at the Hollywood Bowl. Suddenly her song “Don’t Forget to Remember Me” took on new meaning.

The multi-award winning Keith Urban closed the show. With the longest set, he was able to bring more his of his concert-feel to the festival – playing more songs, leaving the stage to performing in the audience and bantering with the signer for hearing-impaired audience members. He sampled Stevie Nicks’s “Edge of Seventeen” causing a thunderous reaction from his fans. Urban is one of those artists who seems like a kid, running and spinning like a rock star, clearly feeling blessed about what he does and most importantly, sounds great! He is a true crowd-pleasin’ entertainer.

For more CD and tour information on these and other artists, go to:

billycurrington.com, sugarlandmusic.com, keithurban.net and stagecoachfestival.com