George Huff is excited -- about building on his "American Idol" run, about releasing an album, about traveling the country, about watching his sister go to college in Louisiana, about visiting West Virginia.

As is evident in his music, Huff likes the bright side of things.

"I'm ready to have a really good time," Huff said about his Aug. 20 appearance at the Charleston Town Center mall. "I can just bounce all day."

Not coincidently, one of the three songs he is planning to perform in Charleston is "Bounce," a cheerful, energetic tune that represents the positive theme of his first full-length album, "Miracles," to be released Oct. 11.

"You can expect passion," Huff said about the CD. "It's about my life and my experiences. It's a really good, well-rounded CD."

Huff was one of the five finalists last year on the television sensation "American Idol," on which judges criticized his traditional style -- both in look and sound. His performances on the show included standards such as "Dock of the Bay" and "What a Wonderful World." Huff's talent was obvious, the judges said. But could he be a mainstream success?

"(Judge) Simon Cowell said I was a nice guy with a nice voice," Huff recounted. "But he said I was not an American Idol."

For Huff, touring and recording are not as much about becoming an idol, necessarily, as making a name for himself and spreading a message. He changed to a more contemporary appearance and moved away from the classical vocal style he had developed at the University of Oklahoma.

"I'm a little bit more spunky," Huff said. "... The tonal quality of my voice is slightly different."

At the same time, though, he is striving to produce music that might draw comparisons to Stevie Wonder or Otis Redding rather than big names in today's popular music -- Usher, for instance.

"What I'm trying to be is a missing link in the music industry today," Huff said. "There's not a lot of positive messages in music today. You hear a lot about shaking your booty and guns. You don't hear a lot of Stevie Wonder. I'm motivated to make a difference in the world and encourage youth to be who they are."

The theme of his upcoming album, which follows his short Christmas CD released last year, is "pretty much love," Huff said. "Not sexual love, but love as in 'love your neighbor.'"

The 11 tracks include "Real Love," "Only Love" and "Count on You." He co-wrote four of them, and his favorite is "Feels Like Heaven," which is bursting with happy thoughts.

His style has been compared to Luther Vandross, and because Vandross producer Reed Vertelney developed a few of the songs on "Miracles," Huff doesn't mind being mentioned with his an artist of such stature in the R&B world.

And after describing his admiration for Vandross, he reeled off of a list of other artists he loves -- Dionne Warwick, Patty Labelle, Chaka Khan and Tina Turner.

"If you see me go crazy on stage, it's because of Tina Turner," he said.

"American Idol" helped launched Huff, and he is attempting to build fame from that success. But, he said, he doesn't plan to completely bow to suggestions he heard on the show. He continues embracing the old, while taking a little from the new instead of the other way around.

"I changed my look a little, but I didn't change George Huff the person too much," he said, "because I like who I am."

Huff's performance at the Town Center is during a teen fashion show, which begins at 12:30 p.m.