Bucky Covington

• Genre: Teen Beat
• Hometown: Rockingham
• Bucky Covington Website

About

When you think about how television has replaced terrestrial radio, it's a bit disconcerting to realize that the old idiot box doesn't just tell seas of impressionable people who to vote for any more -- it also tells them what music to listen to. Bucky Covington is a bit of an anomaly then. He rose to fame via American Idol but was voted off the show while only standing in eighth place. But his low ranking may be why Covington's debut album was produced to sound more earthy and crisp and natural compared to the polished production of Idol champion Carrie Underwood's recordings. Fittingly, Covington first realized that he wanted to sing for audiences when he was a young boy influenced not by the radio or record player, but by the television. It was Jeff Healey's country rocking parts in the movie Roadhouse that awoke Covington's passion for performance and need for a six-string guitar. Years later he and his drumming brother Rocky would play for various North Carolina country rock bands before auditioning for American Idol at the suggestion of Rocky's wife. And though Bucky was the luckier of the two, landing a deal with Lyric Street/Hollywood Records and getting to record a full length album with Mark Miller from Sawyer Brown, Bucky's brother Rocky still plays drums in his brother's touring band.

- Eric Shea