Saturday news: an ABC webisode, a "special" mystery, chartgazing and more...

Bucky Covington performs at the Complete Country Show at the Greased Lightning® Daytime Stages at Riverfront Park on Thursday, June 7 in Downtown Nashville during the 2007 CMA Music Festival. 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, WalMart Music 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. (Provided by Country Music Association. Photo: Teresa Montgomery/ CMA.)

When last we wrote about ABC's "CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock" special (airing Monday, July 23 at 9:00-11:00 PM/ET), the just-issued press release for the show didn't mention Bucky Covington at all. However, this morning's Orange Country Register features a rather interesting story about the broadcast. The article bemoans what the writer feels is a lack of respect shown to country's traditional artists (if you're a fan of one of the acts he deems "fluffy", fair warning), but it's illustrated with a photo of Bucky performing at LP Field, captioned "Bucky Covington is one of the more 'new' country acts performing at 'CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock.' Few oldline acts were included" and provided by...ABC.

All right, ABC--did Bucky's performance make the special or not? It's still rather unclear at this point, but we'll keep an eye out for confirmation as the weekend goes on. There's no mystery about his appearance in the ABC.com webisodes about the festival, though--the newly-posted Webisode #6 features Bucky's tour bus interview, and it's a sweet one. Enjoy!

In chart news, "A Different World" started the morning off right at #8 on the weighted chart and #10 on the Top 500. With the #7 spot occupied by a former #1 smash hit, there's some good lookin' opportunity knocking. You know the song by heart--keep requesting "A Different World" at your favorite local and streaming country stations, and remember that those Saturday night syndicated country radio shows reach a lot of people who'd love to hear what Bucky has to offer. Call up Lia, Whitney, Blair, Danny or your own favorite DJ tonight and add some Covingtonian goodness to the mix!

Tonight, Bucky hits the stage at the big Country Thunder USA festival in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin with Sawyer Brown; the show begins at 6:30 p.m.. Country Thunder USA has a very frequently updated photo gallery on Webshots--bookmark that page and look for photos from today's shows there tonight or tomorrow morning.

Click the image to vote for Bucky Covington in the second round of the AboutCountry "Album of the Year" poll, now through July 23rd.
Vote as often as you like, and feel free to repost this graphic at your website or MySpace.

Finally, a quick reminder about the AboutCountry "Album of the Year" poll--the voting period has been shortened (thank heaven), and the new deadline is Monday July 23rd at about 3 p.m. We've got another "vote-in" happening at 6 p.m. ET today, but hit that link and give Bucky a helping hand any time you like. And as long as we're clicking away, might as well put in a good word for Bucky at CMT's Top 20 Countdown and GAC's Top Twenty Country Countdown, too--that beautiful video is still a joy to see on TV.

More soon!