Early Tuesday news: Bucky Covington at Sound and Speed 2008, new photos at KVOO and KASE, and more...

A blast from the past--Richard Petty and Bucky Covington enjoy a laugh during the question and answer session at the 2007 Sound and Speed event in Nashville. Photo courtesy of the very kind Leaf73; the beautiful caption graphics are by Vali.

Tuesday's news begins with an announcement by the sponsors of the Sound and Speed event in Nashville--Bucky Covington will be among the country stars returning for the 2008 season. From a press release posted at The Frontstretch:

For the third consecutive year, the stars of country music and NASCAR will converge on Music City USA to join Grammy-winning, multi-platinum-selling recording artist Alan Jackson and other top country music performers for Sprint Sound & Speed presented by SunTrust on Jan. 11-12, 2008. The announcement was made by executives from Sprint, SunTrust and NASCAR during the Pep Boys Auto 500 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Celebrities already scheduled to participate in autograph and question-answer sessions are country artist and soon-to-be member of the Grand Ole Opry, Josh Turner (Long Black Train sold over a million copies, garnering multiple nominations from the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music. Your Man attained double-platinum status and earned two Grammy® nominations), Diamond Rio (over 10 million albums sold to date, whose hits include “Meet in the Middle,” “Norma Jean Riley,” “Unbelievable” and “One More Day”), Danielle Peck (most-played debut female country artist of 2006, whose hits include “I Don’t,” “Isn’t That Everything,” “Findin’ a Good Man,” and the new single, “Bad for Me,” impacting radio now), Bucky Covington (top-10 finalist on Fox’s American Idol, whose first single, “A Different World,” reached number one on the country Billboard charts) and trio newcomer Lady Antebellum (whose recently released single, “Love Don’t Live Here,” is creating a buzz and high anticipation for their upcoming album due to hit store shelves in March).

Congratulations, Bucky! Tickets for the 2008 Sound and Speed event go on sale Friday, Nov. 9, and will be available through Ticketmaster and at www.soundandspeed.org. Tickets are $39.50 for the concert, $20 for the festival, or $54.50 for both. (Yep, we did notice that Billboard-related error in the press release, but we left it in--could be a good luck charm for the current single...)

Bucky was also part of the fun in Tulsa a few days ago--not only did he and Jason Michael Carroll sit down for a long chat with Justin Wilfong of Fox 23 there (scroll down to previous entry for the link), they also, um...stood up for some interesting photos for the folks at KVOO! Bucky, Jason and Cole are featured at the bottom of the station's "pix page"--good sports, all!

And KASE has posted photos from their recent "Concert for the Cure", which starred Bucky and Bomshel and raised money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation--click here to visit the station's site, and you'll find the shots in their gallery section.

(Edited to add a link to a very cool bit of musical history featuring Bucky's bandmates Don Medlock and Rocky Covington; check out two great vintage videos from their former bands Skracht Apple and Rhizing Khind, courtesy of the very generous Circletree. Thanks for sharing these rarities!)

More later today--Winnie