Thursday news: live in St. Louis, a sweet Christmas card, and more...

Bucky Covington on stage at Floyd's Music Store in Tallahassee; photo by the very generous Happydays, who has more beautiful concert shots for you at Photobucket. Thanks, Happydays! Bucky Covington's debut CD is in stores now, and his music video for "It's Good to Be Us" 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 his music atCMT 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.

Bucky Covington's break is over, and if you're in the St. Louis area, tonight's your night! He and his excellent band will rock the Voodoo Lounge at Harrah's St. Louis this evening; general admission tickets may still be available at Ticketmaster, and the show is for those 21 and over. Be there a little early to sign up for a Harrah's Total Rewards card (it's required for admission to the Lounge) and have a wild and wonderful time!

Tomorrow, Bucky hits the Voodoo Lounge at Harrah's Kansas City; you can snag your seat at Ticketmaster. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the building fund for the Sunshine Center, a children's facility in Independence, MO--so you'll be rocking out and doing good. Can't beat that...

This week's charts are in, and our friend Marzy left some great news in comments last night--sales for Bucky's CD, Bucky Covington, were up an additional thousand again this week over last week. He sold 4000 or so, bringing the total to about 307,000 albums sold so far. (Ken Barnes also noted Bucky's Country Aircheck #1 New Artist honor in yesterday's Idol Chatter blog at USAToday.com. Good news travels fast!)

At Radio & Records, Bucky maintains his #26 with a bullet position for "It's Good to Be Us" this week, and today's Mediabase listings put the single at a bulleted #27 on both the weighted and Top 500 charts. Bucky's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is a sturdy one, too--it's #84 with a bullet on the weighted chart, and word has it that it's getting some pop radio airplay as well. Keep requesting Bucky at your favorite local or streaming country stations, and get ready for the coming weekend's syndicated evening country radio shows, too.

A little note about that banner up there--if you've got friends in Bucky's official fan club, you're likely to see it everywhere soon! That contest to get the word out about "It's Good to Be Us" is in full swing, but you don't have to be a contest participant to snag it and use it. (You don't even have to be a fan club member--although the club's a lot of fun, and a membership makes a great Christmas/holiday gift...ahem.) Simply click the image to hear "It's Good to Be Us", get a link to a radio station near you via Radio Locator, and get the code to add that graphic to your website, email signature, MySpace, message board tag line...anywhere you'd like to encourage your friends to give Bucky's new tune a listen and a request. Informercial over--have fun!

And of course, Bucky's video is on our minds--we love it and want to see it zoom, too. Watch it now at CMT, and give Bucky some love at GAC's Top 20 Country Countdown, and at CMT's Top 20 Countdown. (CMT's Pure Country Pure 12-Pack voting is over for the week, but we'll be back in the saddle tomorrow...)

We'll return with a concert update later today, but for now, here's a reminder about a show that sort of snuck onto the scene last week--tickets for Bucky's upcoming concert at the Pullo Performing Arts Center in York, PA on January 25th, 2008 are available now at Seat Advisor. You can also get your seat ($27 for the general public, $15 for Penn State students) at the Pullo Center Box Office, or by phone at 717-505-8900. The show is sponsored by WGTY; and the venue is one of those elegant, intimate 1000-seaters that allows for a great view and a comfortable, easygoing experience. Hope to see you there!

Last but certainly not least, Bucky's official mailing list is a free and fun way to keep up with what's happening at his official site; the volume of mail is low and what does pop up in ypur inbox is informative--and sometimes lovely. This week, Bucky's official Christmas greeting went out, and if you haven't checked your mail yet, do it now and prepare to say "awwwwww"...

More soon--have a tremendously good Thursday!