Idol Chatter & Voice Views

*** Bucky Covington’s new song ***

It’s Idol week on FOX17’s Tennessee Mornings show out of Nashville. Yesterday, the station had Idol Season 4 runner-up Bo Bice and Idol Season 10 finalist Ashthon Jones performing on the show.

Today, it was Bucky Covington’s turn, performing his new single, “I Wanna Be That Feeling.”  Bucky signed a new deal last year with the Entertainment One Music Group. And the label is promising a new album sometime in 2012.

It’s about time.  After finishing eighth on Season 5, Bucky released a self-titled debut album in April 2007 that spawned three top 15 country hits.  Subsequent singles have failed to match that success, and we’re now closing in on five years since the last full-length album.

Here’s a link to Bucky’s performance this morning. I’ve also embedded a version of the new single below.

*** Kris Allen and education ***

Season 8 Idol winner Kris Allen has gotten involved in a Tools for the Classroom fund-raising campaign through DonorsChoose.org.

The idea is that public school teachers can post a plea for help in funding a project or something needed for their classroom. Donors can then provide support for the project “that inspires them the most,” Kris says.

Clear Channel Media and Entertainment are also on board, with plans to launch a three-month celebrity-studded radio campaign to support the effort. Kris will be among the celebrities featured.

It’s something of a natural cause for Kris. You’ll recall his wife Katie is a teacher in Arkansas.  You can read more about the effort here.

*** X Factor Record Deals ***

Epic Records announced today that is has signed three contestants from X Factor — Chris Rene, Marcus Canty and Astro.  They’ll join X Factor winner Melanie Amaro on the Epic music roster.

Chris was seldom impressive vocally on X Factor, but has charm and charisma working for him. Not to mention 20 million views on YouTube, according to the Epic press release.  I’m not sure we got to see Marcus at his best on X Factor, but he’s a likeable guy with the best voice of the trio.

As for Astro … I for one hope he’s a major flop. He repeatedly demonstrated that he’s either too big a jerk or too young and unprepared to handle the limelight. Rewarding him with a record deal merely means the prospect of making a few bucks off the kid trumped common sense.

***

Now, Bucky’s new single …