HI-99 WTHI proudly welcomed American Idol finalist Bucky Covington to the Indiana Theatre on Friday, June 20th.  The season five finalist was joined by special guests Jeff Bates, Emily West, and Katie Armiger.

After American Idol Bucky signed with Lyric Street Records, and in January 2007 he released his debut single “A Different World”.  His self-titled debut album came out on April 17, 2007 and it debuted at #1 on the Top Country Albums chart.  Bucky had the best opening week for a male debut album since Billy Ray Cyrus back in 1992. 


His latest single, “It’s Good To Be Us” is still climbing the charts and can be heard on HI-99 WTHI. 

Joining Bucky for the HI-99 concert was Jeff Bates who has had hit singles such as “The Love Song” and “Long Slow Kisses” and he has a Conway Twitty sound about him. This show also featured up and coming artist Emily West.  The Capitol Records singer-songwriter released her first single “Rocks in Your Shoes” recently, and it is quickly gaining popularity in Country Music.  Along with Bucky, Jeff and Emily, was a brand new artist, Katie Armiger.  Katie is a 17 year-old from Texas who signed with Cold River Records in August 2007.  She has her new single out titled “Make Me Believe”.

Program Director Barry Kent commented on the concert, “Over the years HI-99 has been proud to bring fresh new talent to town, for our Thanks For Listening Concerts, like Tracey Lawrence, Diamond Rio, Steve Wariner, Vince Gill, Sawyer Brown, Josh Gracin, Andy Griggs, Craig Morgan and many others.  This year is no exception.  When I first saw Bucky Covington on American Idol I knew he had a career ahead of him in Country music.  When his first song was released it was obvious he was on his way.  And both Emily West and Katie Armiger knocked me dead when I first heard their music.  With the caliber of talent these young ladies are bringing to the business the future looks great, and it’s no wonder Country Music is the hottest genre’ of music today.   See you at the show!”