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Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.20.2008
FLORENCE — Bucky Covington pushed a shock of his wavy blond hair from his eyes, glinted from behind sunglasses and belted out that classic refrain from CCR's "Fortunate Son":
"It ain't me /It ain't me /I ain't no fortunate one, no," he wailed in a Southern-fried, rough-hewn baritone that has served him well since his Season 5 early exit from "American Idol."
The crowd loosely filling the reserved seating area and packing the lawn needed little coaxing to sing along, especially after having heard John Fogerty sing it the night before.
Fogerty, the pen and voice behind that song and most of Credence Clearwater Revival's hits, would have been pleased with Covington's take.
Pink Floyd also would have loved how Covington's voice cranked up an octave on "Another Brick in the Wall."
It was certainly an odd choice of a cover for a country concert, but don't tell those thousands of folks singing along.
Covington was at his best, though, when he played his own songs, steeped in Southern rock while wading thigh-high in country twang.
In one breath he sang with passion about hoping heaven is a lot like his hometown, then he turned misty on the painful "I'll Walk," about a girl who loses the use of her legs.
You don't settle on a mood with Covington; you go with the flow. The tender ballad was the launching pad for crunchy guitar riffs and a sonic assault on the honky-tonk ode of finding religion between "The Bible and the Belt."
Covington ended his show with his breakthrough single "It's Good to Be Us," which is surprisingly contemporary for a guy who comes off as walking outside Nashville's margins.
Covington boasted the biggest afternoon crowd of the four-day event. On days one and two, the audience was sparse until the evening lineup was under way.
Covington anchored the mid-afternoon, following fellow newcomers Luke Bryan and Chuck Wicks. Which kind of begged the question: How did he rate a pre-dinner slot while fellow "Idol"-er Kellie Pickler landed in the prime opening gig for headliner Dierks Bentley?
If they scheduled them in order of "Idol" finishes, it would make sense.
Pickler finished sixth, two ahead of Covington's eighth place in that memorable fifth season.
But on the Country Thunder stage, Pickler might have earned a no-bill from Simon.
She lacked the finesse of a prime-time opener. There was something clumsy about her stage presence. She seemed to be trying too hard, and she ended up talking more than singing.
Perhaps it is because she has few songs of her own from which to choose.
She has one album, her 2006 debut disc, and three radio singles, including her latest, "Things That Never Cross a Man's Mind," and her touching bio-ballad "I Wonder."
She covered those and a handful of album cuts, most of which took the woman's case of having it harder than men a little too far.
Then she resorted to covers, which, frankly, she pulled off amazingly convincingly.
She can affect the perfect alto-range on Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man," although the song's message smacked in the face of her own songs that favored women standing on their own.
She also pulled off a rich twang on Dolly Parton's "9 To 5," which she delivered after telling the crowd of 35,000 that she once had a 9-to-5 job as a roller-skating waitress at Sonic before "Idol."
Pickler's long-winded tales and song intros would have worked much better in daylight.
● Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@azstarnet.com or 573-4642.
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