Saturday news: countdown updates, Hoedown hellos, CMT Insider today and more...

Bucky Covington on stage May 10th at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville; visit Music City Update for a beautiful gallery of concert photos by Aaron Crisler. Bucky Covington's debut CD is in stores now, and his music video is available for online viewing at CMT.com and Yahoo Music. You can buy Bucky's album at Amazon, Best Buy , iTunes and Target, hear the full version of his single "A Different World" at CMT and GAC, or enjoy samples of songs from the CD at Bucky's official MySpace. An autographed copy of Bucky Covington can be ordered while supplies last at his official site or via his official fan club. Photo by Aaron Crisler/ Music City Update.com


Bucky's taking the stage a little earlier than usual today--he'll be performing at the WYCD Downtown Hoedown in Detroit at about 2:05 p.m. on the Greektown Casino Main Stage in Hart Plaza. (And be sure to say hello to him afterwards at the Borders and 99.5 WYCD booths, where he'll be signing autographs at 4:00 p.m. or so!) Word has it that GAC will be taping segments from the Hoedown this weekend, to be aired next week during the Top Twenty Country Countdown. So keep an eye out for the network's cameras--we may see Bucky (and you!) on next Friday's show...

And speaking of video countdowns, thanks to Marzy for the update on this week's results: Bucky's video for "A Different World" was #3 on the CMT Top 20 Countdown, #2 on CMT Pure Country's Pure 12-Pack, and #3 on the GAC Top Twenty Country Countdown. She adds, "It's an American Idol Top 3 on the GAC countdown." Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler rounded out the #1 and #2 spots, respectively. (Feel free to use these handy links to the CMT Pure 12-Pack and GAC Top Twenty countdown pages--it's always nice to keep the ball rolling...)

The dizzying seesaw continues at Mediabase, where "A Different World" was #17 on the Mediabase weighted chart and #18 on the Top 500 as of Friday evening. (Updated--the Saturday a.m. listings are in, and Bucky moved up a notch to the #17 spot on the Top 500, with a big hefty bullet. Thanks, dbrosch!) Is Carrie Underwood's "Wasted" a recurrent or not? I'm throwing in the towel, y'all--it's changed status often enough that I'm just going to link to the "currents and recurrents" weighted chart and let the most recent ranking tell the story. "A Different World" is definitely a current song, though, so keep requesting Bucky at your local country station.

Looking ahead a bit, there's a little more news about Bucky's upcoming Good Morning America performance on June 7th at CMA Fest. From a Friday press release about the event:

Good Morning America's weather anchor Sam Champion will report live from Nashville, Thursday, June 7, giving viewers a front-row seat for CMA Music Festival, a four-day musical lovefest between Country Music artists and their fans. Champion will be joined by Country artists Bucky Covington and The Wreckers from the third-floor, rooftop patio at Graham Central Station, which overlooks CMA Music Festival's concert venues Greased Lightning® Daytime Stages at Riverfront Park and LP Field, home of the nightly stadium concerts.

There's also a blurb about the planned ABC primetime special:

Once again in 2007, the four-day celebration of America's music will be filmed for a two-hour, ABC Network Television special. "CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock" will air Monday, July 23 (9:00-11:00 PM/ET).

In addition to high energy, never before televised concert performances, viewers will also experience the Festival's unique bond between the Country Music artists and their fans. Taped exclusively for the special, cameras will follow the stories of several passionate Country Music fans who will have their dreams come true when they are granted a surprise, once-in-a-lifetime meeting and personal encounter with their favorite Country Music stars.

Will one of Bucky's fans be living his or her dream of saying hello to him during this show--and will all of Bucky's fans be treated to a hot musical performance on primetime network TV next month? We sure hope so! Stay tuned--I'll track down as much info about this exciting special as I possibly can...

And while we're talking about TV, remember to catch Bucky this afternoon on CMT Insider, where he'll be the "special correspondent" for the Insider's report on Tuesday's ACM Awards. It should be a blast! You can see it today at 2 p.m. ET, and it'll repeat several times over the weekend and on Monday.

More later--enjoy your Saturday!