Here’s the 1st of a new series on Idols gone country. This post has updates and media on recent happenings for:

Bucky Covington who has been busy on the road and preparing for the release of his sophomore album I’m Alright,

Danny Gokey who has added a concert date with CMA Male Vocalist Of The Year nominee and country class clown Blake Shelton to his busy schedule,

Casey James who has hit the Nashville ground running and brought along his guitar, UPDATE: Casey has been added to his label’s website as Casey James Band (links after the jump),

Aaron Kelly who is also in Nashville writing,

Kellie Pickler who is working on her 3rd album while opening for Rascal Flatts, and

Carrie Underwood who is prepping for the resumption of her Play On tour and has a full slate of interviews and appearances going on.

There is also a reminder of what will no doubt be a HUGE moment for Diana DeGarmo this Saturday.

Check it all out and discuss after the jump.

Bucky Covington has been busy on the road despite the dissolution of his label Lyric Street Records. In this performance of his song “Mexicoma” (available on his I’m Alright EP, stream it here), Bucky confirms that he does have an album coming out “very soon”:

“Mexicoma” is cowritten by Logan Eric Mize and Lonnie Lee Fowler. Bucky sure does work the stage! Tonight, he will be bringing those moves to the Santa Cruz County Fair. For more on Bucky’s touring dates, check the Idol Appearances tab at MJ’s.

Both Bucky and fellow Season 5 finalist Kellie Pickler attended last night’s 2010 ASCAP Country Music Awards according to Music Row:

Bucky Covington chose a pale blue t-shirt, jeans and a trim black jacket. Kellie Pickler wore a scalloped and sequined cream-and-black mini cocktail dress with a wide black belt and sky-high stilleto heels.

The picture above is from last night’s event and includes many people familiar to the AI world including Matt Serletic, producer for David Cook and Taylor Hicks, Hillary Lindsey, a friend and frequent collaborator of Carrie Underwood’s who has also worked with Kellie, Aimee Mayo, a very close friend and collaborator of Kellie Pickler as well as the cowriter of Adam Lambert‘s Sleepwalker, and Chris Lindsey, a frequent collaborator of Kellie’s who has also worked with Carrie.

Kellie Pickler is busy working on her third album with producer Frank Liddell (who has coproduced all 3 of Miranda Lambert‘s albums) in between opening for Rascal Flatts on their Nothing Like This tour. Oh yeah, and she’s also getting ready for her wedding to songwriter Kyle Jacobs! She tells People mag:

“I’m in the middle of working on an album and on the Rascal Flatts tour, so trying to juggle that and plan a wedding has been a challenge,” she said Tuesday at the ASCAP Awards in Nashville. “I think once the record gets finished I can jump into wedding mode.”

In this videotaped meet & greet with a couple of her fans, Kellie talked about how she feels like her best music is still to come and that she recently cut her favorite song that she has ever recorded. It is a song she did not cowrite, but Kellie says she is also excited about some of the songs she has cowritten. One of those songs could be a song she cowrote with her soon-to-be husband Kyle Jacobs called “I Thought About You”, which also lists Kellie as performer of the song. ASCAP is also listing Kellie as the performer of a song called “Just Give Me Jesus” which is written by Benjamin Glover, Kyle Jacobs, and Rachel Thibodeau.

Casey James is taking meetings in Los Angeles and Nashville this week according to his mother, who cleared up a rumor that he had already moved to Nashville. Stacy McCloud, a FOX entertainment reporter in Nashville, posted on her Facebook wall that she plans to do a “big story” on him soon. She had expected to meet him at last night’s ASCAP Country Music Awards, but did not. But Casey has apparently already begun the networking process. He participated a post-ASCAP Awards jam in Nashville according to Aimee Mayo on Twitter:

Ascap Awards last nite @silvertire & pickler won awards finally met Casey James -after party jam session N studio- he’s amazing on guitar.

9/16 update: As of this morning, Casey has been added to the Sony Nashville and BNA Records sites as Casey James Band.

Aaron Kelly tweeted today that he is writing with John Hadley. John Hadley is a country songwriter who cowrote “Hello Mr. Heartbreak” by the Dixie Chicks (from their sophomore album Fly), the 1987 top 10 hit “Til I’m Too Old To Die Young” by Bandy Moe, the 1987 top 10 hit “Brilliant Conversationalist” by T. Graham Brown, and the 1991 top 10 “That’s What I Like About You” by Trisha Yearwood.

UPDATE: Aaron tweeted that he’s writing with Rafe Van Hoy today. They previously cowrote a song called “So Much Fun Being In Love”:

Carrie Underwood is doing a round of radio interviews to promote the 2nd leg of her Play On tour, which is set to resume on September 25th at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon. Interviews broadcast today (podcasts linked if available) include ones with KRTY in San Jose, KMLE in Phoenix, and Q104.3 in Kansas City. Carrie’s interviews with 95.5 The Wolf in Nashville and KZSN in Wichita will broadcast tomorrow morning. Here’s the KAJA in San Antonio interview that broadcast today.

Tomorrow, Carrie plays the Grand Ole Opry at 8:45 PM Central time. You can listen live at WSM Radio. The Opry tweeted today:

Tomorrow night’s Opry with Carrie Underwood and more will also feature a certain popular network television show! http://bit.ly/cFDBBc

The network show in question is rumored to be Extreme Makeover: Home Edition which is taping a show dedicated to Nashville’s recovery from the devastating floods from May this week. The show will spotlight the rebuilding of the Lighthouse School according to an official press release from ABC.

Carrie is currently on the cover of Women’s Health Magazine, and the magazine just put up behind the scenes footage of her photoshoot as well as the 1st section of the article.

Last but definitely not least, don’t forget that Diana DeGarmo will perform at the Opry this Saturday with the legendary Dolly Parton! They will perform during the 8:45-9:15 PM Central segment of the show.

Check out the latest Danny Gokey update at MJ’s here. EDIT: There’s a new concert date for Danny, thanks steph6449. He will be performing at the Opening Night Celebration of the Spotlight Lexington event at 7 PM local time on September 24th at the Pfizer Animal Health Stage at Courthouse Plaza. Also on the bill that night is Blake Shelton, somebody Danny had a rather close encounter with at the 2010 CMT Awards. ;)

NOTE: Danny Gokey fans, if there are news/video updates you feel fit this post, please post in comments and I will update the post. The main reason he isn’t in here already is that I didn’t want to step on the regular Danny posts that already go here. I’m still figuring this all out, which is why I just posted a link to the most recent Danny post. #ITSAPROCESS

Same goes for fans of any other Idol in country. I’ll update this post with relevant links and information that you all post in comments.