Bucky Covington gives credit to his band members

Bucky Covington performed for thousands during Grundy County Corn Festival Friday night before signing autographs for fans. (Herald photo Heidi Terry-Litchfield)

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Along with every good singer comes a good band. Bucky Covington is no exception. Behind Bucky on stage Friday night giving a crowd-pleasing performance was his six-member band - Don Medlock on acoustic guitar, Scott Saunders on keyboard, Jeff Cease on lead guitar, Steve Cook on bass, Tom Hurst on drums, and twin brother Rocky Covington on percussion. Cook has been on tour with Bucky for the past year and said, for him, it's the greatest job in the world. “It means a lot to look out and see people enjoying themselves while listening to your music,” Cook said. Cook said it's fun to play a show like Morris because it's all open air and you can see the large crowd spread down the street and it's easy to feed off to get energy. “I love big stages where we have room to run around and act crazy,” he said. “But smaller stages and bars have a place too. Each offer their own vibe.” Cease said he really felt welcome in Morris, and was surprised when the Morris fire department and EMS gave them all shirts. “It was really cool for them to come down and give us a bunch of shirts,” he said. “I had to wear mine on stage.” He said they play all sorts of venues, from festivals to honky tonks, and feeling welcome means a lot to him. Cease has also been playing with Bucky for about a year, and said life has been busy. “It's been great, although busy,” Cease said. “If you want to succeed, you have to be busy. If you are busy, it means people want to see you.” Cease said one of his favorite things about playing town festivals is how the entire town seems to be shut down. Even if it's not for them, it appears that way. “When you are playing out in a dusty field, you don't get the same sense of everything halting for your show,” he said. Bucky and his band put on a 90-minute show, finishing up with covers of Sawyer Brown and Pink Floyd songs, in which, much to the dismay of Morris teachers, he led the crowd in a very loud rendition of “Another Brick in the Wall,” with the crowd singing, “We don't need no education.” Thousands of fans lined the street to see Bucky and his band, with people coming in from all over the United States. Bucky took one of his most-faithful fans, Dakot,a on stage to introduce the band. Dakota knows the band's names by heart, as she should, she's in Bucky's Top 10 on MySpace after all. After the show, Bucky took time to sign autographs on the boat at CanalPort Park for all who lined up to see him,posing for photographs with many. His twin brother, Rocky, kept himself busy signing autographs from the stage for his own set of fans. For younger, new-found fans in the crowd, a confused, “Is that Bucky or Rocky?” could be heard from the crowd.