Monday news: Last day for CMT Music Awards voting, a little break, chartgazing and more...

Bucky Covington smiles for the cameras on the red carpet at the 2007 CMT Music Awards in Nashville . (Photo by Aaron Crisler/ Music City Update.com)

Last call! Voting for the first round of the 2008 CMT Music Awards ends TONIGHT, Monday, 2/25 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Bucky Covington is nominated in the USA Weekend Breakthrough Video of the Year category for "A Different World". Register at CMT and vote for Bucky now!

It's a fairly quiet news day, but it's a lovely one for chartgazing--"It's Good to Be Us" is off to a great start this week at #15 on both the Mediabase weighted and Top 500 charts. Lots of opportunity knocking, with several top hits maturing--we'll need to seize the day! Keep requesting, and watch those bullets grow...

Upcoming shows: Nothing new here, so we'll repeat yesterday's reminders--the Morris Performing Arts Center in South Bend, IN welcomes Dierks, Bucky and Luke on Thursday, 2/28. Tickets are available now at the Morris Box Office, Supersounds Catalog Center inside TG Music, Goshen IN, by calling (800) 537-6415 or (574) 235-9190, or online at morriscenter.org.

Tickets for most of Dierks Bentley's Throttle Wide Open dates are available now at Ticketmaster--check Dierks' official website for details on non-Ticketmaster events. Seats for the Jackson, TN Dierks Bentley concert on April 3rd are available at the City of Jackson site.

(Photo by the very kind Aikenseeker; click the image to visit RockyCovington.com.)

On the tube and around the net: This week's edition of CMT Insider featured a fun segment with Bucky filmed at the set of the "It's Good to Be Us" music video--tune in for the final repeat at 11:30 AM ET/PT. And if you're a DirecTV subscriber, enjoy a lunch break with Saywer Brown and Bucky on "The 101"--their concert special airs again at 12 Noon ET today. GAC has an early-afternoon treat for you, too...catch "It's Good to Be Us" at 1:33 PM ET.

Online, check out these concert photos--and a great review--by a talented music fan who went to the Auburn Hills Throttle Wide Open show. (Thanks for sharing those!) The Covington Times is graced with fun news about "mutual fandom", along with a beautiful shot from the '06 Idol finale and a cool Bucky Covington and Rocky Covington concert photo by Happydays. Midask9's It's Good to Be Us blog has a little note--and a cute closeup image--on "celebrity bling" and a reminder about those all-important requests today. And Nikki's Simply a Bucky Fan features a reminder about the CMT Music Awards, along with a treasure trove of request info right there in the sidebar.

Vote for Bucky: Today is my very last chance to nag--I mean "encourage" everyone to vote for Bucky in the first round of 2008 CMT Music Awards. We'll have to wait until March 6th to know if he made it through to the next round--and it'll be a blessing to be able to start nagging all over again. But first he's got to make it to the final round! We can get that belt buckle into his hands. Register and vote right away--and tell a few hundred friends!

We'll close with those familiar--and important-- video voting links. Show "It's Good to Be Us" some love at GAC Top 20 Country Countdown, at CMT's Top 20 Countdown and at CMT's Pure Country Pure 12-Pack. Then, hop right back into your email address book and cut and paste the following line at the bottom of everything you send today:

Register at CMT.com and vote for Bucky Covington's "A Different World" in the 2008 CMT Music Awards

Just imagine that smile on Bucky's face when he finds he's made it through to the next round...

Have a marvelous Monday!