Thursday news: Power Picks, Daily Bucky, album charts and more...(updated)

By request, Bucky Covington strikes a soulful note in this photo from his Grand Ole Opry performance in April. 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. (Photo © 2007 Grand Ole Opry; photo by Billy Kingsley, Hollo Photographics.)

Bucky's video for "A Different World" will face a head- to-head challenge on CMT's Power Picks, which begins at 12 noon ET; click here to go directly to the Power Picks main page. Bucky's matchup will happen during the first half of the show, so at noon, hit the "Vote Now" button, keep that voting window open and get ready to mouse-click away...

(Edited with results: Bucky won this matchup against Taylor Swift with 69% of the vote. Congratulations!)

Bucky's been enjoying a little break, but he'll be lighting up the stage again in just a few days. Saturday, July 21st, he'll join Sawyer Brown at the big Country Thunder USA festival in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, and on Sunday, Bucky and Sawyer Brown will dazzle the crowd at the Jamboree in the Hills in Clairesville, Ohio. That's what we call a winning combination! You can catch Bucky on the road all summer long with Rocky, Don, Shaun and Hans, and on a few select dates with Sawyer Brown--the tour page at Bucky's official site has the details. Be there for all the excitement!

And there's some radio excitement on the horizon, too--tune into Sirius Satellite Radio's New Country channel 60 for "The Daily Bucky" at 9 p.m. ET tonight. Yesterday evening, Bucky sang an energetic acoustic version of "It's Good to Be Us"; tonight, you'll enjoy another great tune from Bucky's CD, along with an interview snippet that's sure to put a smile on your face. Not a Sirius subscriber yet? Head to the New Country homepage and click the link at the top right for details on their free online trial offer.

The weekly album tallies are posted, and Bucky Covington's impressive "Top 12-ish" streak continues with a #11 spot on the latest Billboard country album chart; in fact, Bucky's album has been consistently landed in or near the Top Ten on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart since its release back in April. That's quite a nice opening note for a new artist! Ken Barnes has a bit more detail in his weekly overview of Idol-graduate sales at his "Idol Chatter" blog for USA Today.

Updated: Thursday morning's Mediabase reports are here, and congratulations are in order-- Bucky's "A Different World" has crossed into single digit chart territory! It's currently #9 on the weighted listings and #10 on the Top 500, and with a few more mature hits falling gently back down the charts, there's a very good chance that more confetti might fly before the week is out. Keep requesting "A Different World" at your favorite local and streaming country stations, and remember your local "Top X at X" countdowns and your favorite nationally syndicated shows, too. (And of course, there's always time for a vote or two at CMT's Top 20 Countdown and GAC's Top Twenty Country Countdown.)

Click the image to vote for Bucky Covington in the second round of the AboutCountry "Album of the Year" poll, now through July 30th.
Vote as often as you like, and feel free to repost this graphic at your website or MySpace.

We'll wrap it up for now with a link to the AboutCountry Awards "Album of the Year" poll, running now through July 30th. Bucky's in some great company there--stop in and give him a boost! We'll do a "vote in" later today, so stay tuned...

More very soon--happy Thursday!