Once again, let's turn it over to former American Idol favorite, Bucky Covington ...

My album comes out in a little over a week, and I've got to admit I've been a little more nervous lately. We've already seen some great reviews, from people who've written about it and sent us an email. So I'm really excited, but there's a bit of nervousness in there. I'm really interested to see what it's going to do. I hope it does well.

The first song on the album is called American Friday Night. It was written by Tom Douglas, who wrote another song that I love, Collin Raye's Little Rock. Tom lives across the street from my producer, Mark Miller. Tom was sitting outside one day, so we stopped by and Mark introduced me. Tom's got this beautiful house. So I was shaking his hand, but I was looking at this house of his. I said, "Man, that is a great song you wrote."

I mean, it was an extraordinary house.

A little while later, Tom sent us a disc of songs, and American Friday Night was one of them. As soon as I heard it, I knew it had the drive and I could immediately relate. In a small town, the only thing there is to do on a Friday night is the high-school football game. Anywhere else you go is dead. So, like it or not, you go to the football game.

We recorded the song the day after he sent it to us, and there was a film crew there to do an interview, so in the background, of course, you could hear us recording American Friday Night. A couple days later, Tom was at a Halloween party, and he hears his song on the news. He called Mark: "Mark, have you already cut that song?" Mark said: "I told you we were ready. The song was good, so we did it." Tom was kind of blown away by that.

I've been doing a lot of press lately –- I had a big media day last Wednesday. I've got to say, the country press has been pretty nice. When you're on Idol, you've got pop critics and rock critics, anybody and everybody writing about you. If they didn't dig country music, there was no telling what they were going to write about me.

The hardest interviews are the ones where you feel like you have to drag it along, where you almost have to drag the questions out of the reporter. But with country interviews, nine times out of 10, I'm talking to people who've got accents like I do. So they can understand me. We're off to a good start.

I'm still loving Nashville, even though it feels like I'm hardly ever home. I live out toward the Franklin area, which is great. I love having my own space. I don't like being on top of other people. I do have neighbors, but they're a good distance away. I can be in Nashville in 25 minutes. I'm also very close to the studio and the office so when I have to run back and forth, it makes it a lot easier.

Living in Nashville is awesome. There's always something to do. Thursday night, Daughtry was in town, so Kellie and I went out and watched his show at the Exit/In. I got to meet a couple of the guys from .38 Special and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Brad from Three Doors Down was there. I like a little bit of the rock stuff, too, so it was awesome to meet those guys.

In Nashville, there's always stuff like that popping up. There's also the little bars like I had back home. It's the best of both worlds.

That's it for now. Remember - the album's just eight days away. Preorder one from my website, and I'll still sign it for you. Talk to you next week

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.