LEWISTON - One year after reaching the Top 5 on TV juggernaut "American Idol," singer Phil Stacey still shakes off the nerves that jangled his network performances.

"It was pretty crazy," said the 30-year-old country artist who will headline the Oxford County Fair Sunday. "There was a lot to enjoy about the experience. On the flip side, when you know that somebody is going to criticize your performance on national TV right after you give it, it's a different vibe."

He worried about the technical issues of singing for TV - such as standing in the right spot for the cameras and coping with the audio monitor in his ear - and he tried not to get caught up in the music.

"I was nervous enough just trying to sing," he said. "You know if you get too into it, someone's going to make fun of you. It's a confusing process. If you give the karaoke performance of a lifetime, it's still a karaoke performance to them."

These days, the panel of judges is gone and few people are making fun of him. His self-titled debut album drew good reviews and hit No. 8 on the country charts when it was launched in April. The record's first single, "If You Didn't Love Me," cracked the Top 30.

In the coming weeks, Stacey is scheduled to zigzag across the country, playing in Wisconsin one night and North Carolina the next.

Reached by phone Friday, he was somewhere in Virginia, though that was only a guess.

"It has a lot of trees," he said, looking out of his tour bus window. That evening, he was slated to perform at the 15th Annual American Music Festival in Virginia Beach. Other performers were slated to include the BoDeans, the B-52s and Los Lobos.

It's a long way from where he started.

The son and grandson of pastors, Stacey grew up in Kansas and began touring when he was still in junior high school. He performed in a family act as part of The Stacey Trio and on his own. He traveled to China with a gospel choir from Lee University in Tennessee. And when he joined the Navy after 9/11, he sang lead for a Navy band.

He married his wife, Kendra, while still in college. He missed the birth of their first child while enduring boot camp. He missed the birth of their second child, who arrived two weeks early, while auditioning for "American Idol."

The drama of the audition and the birth was played out for "Idol's" huge TV audience.

"I'm proud to have come from 'American Idol,'" Stacey said.

"I do want people to know the artist, Phil," he said. "I've been touring since I was 13 years old and I was out there selling independent records out of my trunk, and all of that stuff."

Excelling in such an incredibly competitive contest is a crucible of its own. After all, 16,000 people tried out when he auditioned in Memphis. Over the course of the season, 133,000 people tried out.

"I made the Top 5 show," he said.