Thursday news: chart gazing, and a little Chicken Soup...

Bucky Covington's "It's Good to Be Us" starts the day at #18 on both the Mediabase weighted and Top 500 charts--that "superstar polevault" was pretty much anticipated, but the rather slender bullets are a bit of a surprise. Fortunately, that's fixable! Can we very busy Bucky Covington fans squeeze some extra requests in at our local stations (and on Lia, The Big Time with Whitney Allen, Danny Wright All Night, and After Midnite and the like) this evening, and keep up that tell-a-friend voting campaign for the 2008 CMT Music Awards? Yep...we sure can.

Upcoming shows: There's nothing new on Bucky's jam-packed winter/spring concert schedule as of this hour, but what is there is looking pretty exciting, indeed. Dierks Bentley Throttle Wide Open dates are on sale at Ticketmaster , and with Bucky and Luke Bryan opening, this will be a terrific night of music. That headlining show at The Machine Shop date in Flint, MI on 2/22 is a must if you're in the area--grab your tickets at (18 and over only) at www.etix.com.

On the tube and around the net: There seems to be a little confusion about the offline availability of the CMT Online Awards fun--hope this message straight from CMT will sort it out:

For the second year in a row, CMT.com returns with its wacky, irreverent celebration of Internet excellence when the CMT ONLINE AWARDS debuts for the first time ever on television. Double-platinum recording artist and first bona-fide country star of the MySpace generation, Taylor Swift will host all of the awards festivities from the comforts of her home.

Presenters and special guests of the CMT ONLINE AWARDS include Rodney Carrington, Jason Michael Carroll, Bucky Covington, Jennifer Hanson, Shooter Jennings, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Dolly Parton, Kellie Pickler, Blake Shelton and Josh Turner. New country group Lady Antebellum also serve as house band for the special.

The CMT ONLINE AWARDS will award content with the most online traffic during 2007 at CMT.com. Each winner will be presented with the CMT.com Mouse Award, a unique hand-painted gold computer mouse mounted inside a genuine mason jar. Premieres Tuesday, February 12 at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT.

And there you have it, straight from the source! Tune in and enjoy on Tuesday, or check it out right now at CMT.com.

GAC offers an encore of the Riverfront Concert Series special with Bucky and labelmates Sarah Buxton and Trent Tomlinson tomorrow, 2/8 at 10:30 p.m., with several repeats this weekend. (They'll also play "It's Good to Be Us" at about 2:27 ET this afternoon and 11:25 tonight.)

The Covington Times features a now-classic shot by Beesims of Bucky in NYC for his first Regis and Kelly appearance, a link to BluIsDixieGurl's excellent gallery (and a nice Rocky Covington shot by Blu, too), as well as a reminder about our friends at WKML.

Looking for something to inspire you to make that next request or vote--or to take that change-your-life chance that'll get your fans blogging about you someday? Read the Bucky Covington chapter from Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul, now available online courtesy of author Debra Poneman at ISnare.com. (If you're the sentimental sort, keep a Kleenex handy...)



Vote for Bucky: Along with that all-important 2008 CMT Music Awards ballot (ahem!) , be sure to cast your vote for Bucky at the Country Weekly "Country's Hottest Bachelor" survey --one vote per mail address, so this is another one that'll involve asking for a liitle assistance. The current "Idol Madness" playoff round at Idol Thoughts is winding down, but you can still vote for Bucky there today.

We'll wrap things up for now with some handy video voting links--show "It's Good to Be Us" some love at GAC's Top 20 Country Countdown and at CMT's Top 20 Countdown. CMT's Pure Country Pure 12-Pack takes the day off on Thursdays, but the poll will be ready for our votes again tomorrow...

More soon--have a sweet Thursday!