For Covington, there is life — and a career — after '06 'Idol'

"I don't do a whole lot of thinking," Bucky Covington says. "I'm a big believer in not over-thinking. I don't really think about things until it's done. If I thought about it before, it'd probably scare me to death."
That philosophy is serving the native of Rockingham, N.C., well. "American Idol's" most recent transplant to country music phoned from Michigan, where he's busy promoting his new album.
Covington, 29, only made it to the final eight on "American Idol" in 2006, but his album debuted at No. 1 on Nielsen Soundscan's Country Top 75 chart. The performance of the album, released April 17, has turned country music on its ear. With 61,000 units sold, Covington had the best first-week sales for any new male country artist since Billy Ray Cyrus in 1992. He was also the only new country act to open inside the Top 5 this year on Soundscan's all-genre Top 200 chart.
"I got to give some credit to 'American Idol,' " Covington said. "A lot of people know who I am because my face rings a bell, and I have some name recognition. But Mark Miller and Lyric Street gave me a lot of help."
Miller, the lead singer and frontman for the hugely popular band Sawyer Brown, praised Covington for his honesty and believability, and came on board to produce the record for Lyric Street, the label made famous by Rascal Flatts. (Covington is Lyric Street's second "Idol" singer; the label signed former Marine Josh Gracin after his Season 2 experience ended.)
Critics are praising the Covington album's diversity. Entertainment Weekly said, "The North Carolinian with the throaty drawl could sell everything from the cheeky to the weepy. And he does."
From the totally twangy first single, to the sweet ballad "I'll Walk," to the Southern rock kicker "Bible and the Belt," Covington keeps the tempo interesting. He even earned writing credit on the sentimental "Carolina Blue," but says, "I just wanted good songs; I didn't care who wrote it."
The first single, "A Different World," is making a solid mark on the country charts, having landed at No. 19 last week on Billboard's Hot Country Songs charts. The video is doing even better.
Lyric Street hired virtuoso video director Trey Fanjoy for Covington's debut video. "We filmed it in 15 hours, all in one day, at the Disney Ranch (in California). It was about 15 degrees at 6 in the morning, and by noon it was 75," Covington says. Of Fanjoy, he says, "She is a sweetheart. She was about seven or eight months' pregnant at the time, when she directed that. She never complained, and she has done an awesome job. I would love to work with her again." Fans like the video so much that it was in the Top 5 on CMT last week.
With such a strong country background, Covington might have auditioned for "Nashville Star," the country version of "American Idol," but he almost didn't audition for "American Idol" at all.
Hurricane Katrina forced the cancellation of the "American Idol" audition at the closest venue for him, 11 hours away in Memphis, Tenn. But then, a new site was chosen, in nearby Greensboro, N.C. Covington thought it was karma, and he went.
"There wasn't a whole lot of thought into it, period," he said. "I thought, 'Let's give it a good hit-and-a-miss,' and it hit."