Buckymania, 2006-2008: Mission accomplished!

"Chase your dreams. They don't come to you."--Bucky Covington

Bucky Covington in Atlanta; photo by Mike Clifton of Local Sports Online. Click here to see more of his beautiful photography, or call 770-460-7910 for more information. Thank you, Mr. Clifton!

It's ironic--sometimes chasing your dreams until they catch you brings about changes you never could have anticipated. Back in March of 2006, you and I met here at Buckymania. Together, we watched a talented young country singer named Bucky Covington chase his dream on American Idol--and those exciting musical Tuesdays and suspenseful Wednesdays brought us all closer, as we voted and cheered and dreamed of his first CD and his Nashville career right along with him...

Photo by DeniseBernadette--click image to view her gallery.)

You and I have been here sharing the fun through Bucky's Idol journey, through the excitement of the American Idols Live! tour, through the long and uncertain post-Idol tour stretch, through the news of his studio time and the sweet surprise of the GAC Christmas tour, through his first hit single, his #1 album, his first major awards nomination, and through many, many hot and happening concerts all over the country. The tale of Bucky Covington and his delighted supporters is a textbook example of the power and magic inherent in chasing a dream, holding on tight, and never giving up.

What's ironic is that helping Bucky chase his career dream ultimately led to me catching one of my own. I've been offered a professional opportunity that I'd be crazy not to jump on, and I've accepted. The downside is that there's no way I'll be able to honor my commitment to a new, labor-intensive project and still do a quality job with Buckymania. The upside is that our mission here is quite beautifully accomplished.

Bucky's online presence is in amazing paid-professional hands with O-Seven, Lyric Street and MCN's BuckyCovington.com--his blossoming, busy, undeniably successful career really outgrew one lone indie blogger's capacities about a year ago, to be honest! Even though one fan site is closing, Bucky's very strong support system, official and fan-based, will go on and grow even stronger as he heads on down the highway toward that thirty-year career he's made it clear he's after. (And there's no doubt in my mind he'll get it.)

I am still and forever a devoted Bucky Covington fan--I'll be on the phones requesting and voting, and at the shows cheering and dancing, too. You can count on that.

This wouldn't be a proper goodbye post without some big thanks.

Thanks to all the regular readers for your friendship, emails and sweetness, and to everyone who has graciously sent photos, videos, news, information and kind thoughts these past two years--I typed, but YOU made Buckymania the beautiful and informative blog that it was. Bucky Covington is truly blessed with the greatest fans in the world!

Thanks to Hildi for giving me an encouraging word that changed my whole life.

Thanks to Blogger.com for making Buckymania a Blog of Note last year and getting the ball rolling.

Thanks to AmaTexMom for an extraordinary kindness that helped to keep the blog alive.

Thanks to all the lovely lurkers, media reps and record company folk who have stopped in and kept tabs. (I'm flattered!)

Thanks to Ducky, Caitlin, Shaun, Hans, Steve, Jefferson, Scott, Tom, Rocky and Jeff for rockin' the house night after night; to the crew, friends and family who help make it happen out there on the road; to Mark Miller, the Harris Brothers, Lyric Street and MCN for being incredible, and to the Covington Family for being so wonderfully gracious.

Thanks to the brilliant songwriters who gave Bucky some fine, fine music to sing.

Thanks to everyone I'm no doubt forgetting at at this late (and kind of emotional) hour.

And thanks so much to Bucky Covington for some of the best, sweetest and most fun musical moments I've ever had, hands down. It's been a joy!

Buckymania's closing, but the archives will remain online for as long as Blogger allows, and along with the great fan sites in the sidebar, there's a hot new fan blog just setting up shop--please visit the very kind Fran and enjoy the debut of Buckytown USA.

For the last video, I'll go "back to the future" a bit and post my very favorite Bucky Covington Idol performance from 2006. He's come a long, long way since this one, but the honesty and pure heart in his voice that night remains to this day--and it'll be there twenty years from now, too.

I'll see y'all on the road!--Winnie