American Idol

The following review is courtesy of Entertainment Weekly ...

The day after Bucky Covington got the boot from American Idol, Sawyer Brown frontman/producer Mark Miller phoned him. He saw something we didn't: With the right songs, the North Carolinian with the throaty drawl could sell everything — from the cheeky to the weepy.

And he does, on Bucky Covington, his versatile debut. While we acknowledge his softer side, it's the tracks with teeth-grinding bravado bubbling below the surface (''Back When We Were Gods'') or boiling over (''The Bible and the Belt'') that make us believers. Sing those hillbilly blues, son. B+