Thursday news: photos from Edenton, Las Cruces news and more...

Bucky Covington takes a moment on stage at the Big Spring Jam in Huntsville in this beautiful photo by the very kind Buckyflowers. Thanks so much for sharing this great shot! Bucky Covington's debut CD is in stores now, and his music video for "A Different World" 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. A copy of Bucky Covington can be ordered at his official site or via his official fan club.

A big thanks to Hildi for her kind heads-up on this beautiful gallery of Bucky Covington concert photos via the Dixie 105.7 site. The station sponsored Bucky's recent show in Edenton, North Carolina, and photographer Shelley Chamberlin captured many shots of Bucky, Rocky, Shaun, Hans and Don on stage, off stage, and chatting with fans. (You might be one of the beautiful faces in that "Bucky's Fans" group of shots, if you were there...) Kudos to Hildi for sharing the news--enjoy!

And Bucky's October 6th show at the Southern New Mexico State Fair is the focus of this article in today's Las Cruces Sun-News; KGRT's Sheila Kirsch spoke with him earlier this week, and here's what he had to say to her about the difference between his Idol tour experiences and the beautiful here-and-now:

Although Covington said American Idol crowds are awesome and supportive, he said many people are at the show to see one particular person or a certain style of music.

"So now when I go out and do my shows, those people are there to hear me," he continued. "Actually, since we've been on the road since January, we've seen a big difference in the crowds ... a lot more of 'em showing up and everybody has a great time."

We're gonna have to agree with that "great time" assessment, y'all. KGRT has been behind Bucky from the start, and they're promoting his performance in Las Cruces in style on their website--tune in to find out how you can "Get Lucky with Bucky" in Las Cruces.

If you're not fortunate enough to have KGRT as your hometown country station, you might still get lucky with Bucky on the radio in your area--all it takes is a call to request for "It's Good to Be Us"! Once again, it's #40 on the Mediabase weighted chart and #39 on the Top 500 this morning--request it on your local "Top X at X" and listen in tonight. (Don't have one? Borrow Fayetteville's--write WKML at country@wkml.com with a request for "It's Good to Be Us" in your subject line and tune in to their "Top 5 at 6" stream this evening for the countdown.)

There's also some online listening in store via Bucky's official MySpace blog; his reply to the fan-submitted question of the day has just been posted, and you'll get to find out which artist or band he's been wanting to shake hands with. If your curiosity is running wild, leave a question for Bucky as a comment on this post--and you could be the next one to get an answer in Bucky's own words...

Finally, here's some cool news from the world of country line-dancing. Remember that just-created dance for "It's Good to Be Us" that we spoke of several weeks ago? It seems to have caught on pretty nicely--and a step sheet is now available. In the latest World Line Dance Newsletter, choreographer Lynne Martino reports: " Loved the music and the title of the song. Had a good response. " Look for it (or better yet, get out there and do it) on a dance floor near you!

More soon--have a terrific Thursday...