Quick Tuesday news: win a trip backstage with Bucky Covington at the Merced County Fair, radio news and more...

Bucky Covington in a pensive shot from the photo session for his upcoming album, set for a September 8th release; see the full version of this image as GAC's Photo of the Week. Photo credit: Ashley Heron/Lyric Street Records

Bucky Covington and his band are spending a lot of prime time out West this summer--and KUBB in Merced, CA wants to help you spend some time with Bucky. From the station's site:

Bucky Covington is coming to the Merced Fairgrounds Saturday July 25th!
KUBB Country welcomes Bucky to Merced!
Listen to KUBB to WIN free fair tickets....
Wanna go backstage and win an autographed guitar?
Sign up at our booth before the show (with your paid admission)
OR sign up online...send us your name, address and phone to kubbemail@aol.com

Bucky's Merced County Fair show takes place at the CVC/CVT Outdoor Theatre at the fairgrounds, and headline acts are free with the price of admission. Whiskey Dawn are the opening act; Bucky and his band will take the stage Saturday night at about 8:30 pm. You can buy and print your ticket right online, or pay $10 for general admission to the fair at the gate. Enjoy the show!

By request, here's that striking portrait of Bucky Covington catching a little sun at Country Jam USA; many thanks to Diver for sharing this one.

The 105.1 HANK-FM ticket giveaway for the Jackson County Fair show on Thursday night still seems to be in progress--here's a link to that entry form, and we hope your name is among those announced on the Breakfast with Bishop show! For the rest of us, tickets are still available online at $25 for reserved seats, $15 lawn; Bucky and Sawyer Brown are the featured headliners, so you know it'll be a blast.

There's still a little time for Bucky's Nevada-based fans to get in on that fun Night in the Country contest, too. Listen to K-Bull 98.1 between 6am - 10am local time this week to win tickets to both nights of the festival, which features Bucky and Sawyer Brown on Friday night, and Josh Gracin and Jason Aldean on Saturday, or buy seats at the festival's site.

(We'll link you to Buckytown USA's concert sidebar and Bucky Covington's official tour page right about now--go see these guys when they get close to your town! And if saying hi to Bucky sounds like fun, consider joining his official fan club for meet and greet perks, merch discounts, full site access, message boards and more.)


As for the radio...well, we're posting a bit too early for the morning Mediabase numbers (whoops, update's in--Bucky's #34 with a very slightly bigger bullet) , but from the looks of the new radio trade ad up there, Lyric Street is definitely feeling good about "I Want My Life Back" and its slow but steady rise up the country charts. They, and we, have reason to feel good--even with just about every country superstar you can name releasing a single in the past 10 days or so, Bucky's new tune has held on to that bullet signifying upward motion. Now that there's a little breathing room, it's time for us to pounce on those request lines. Top 30 means a lot of new stations, new countdowns and new ground--it's well worth the time it takes to get on the phone and call!

(And of course, emailing the very kind Larry K at WKML is always a sweet way to show your support; write him at country@wkml.com and ask for "I Want My Life Back" for tonight's "Top 5 at 6", and be sure to vote for Bucky on your local countdown, too...)

More later today--enjoy your Tuesday!--Winnie