If stockings around the world are filled with Taylor Hicks CDs this Christmas, you can bet that one gray-haired guy from Birmingham will be dancing with glee.

The "American Idol" winner, 30, has been pushing hard for the past six weeks, developing his debut disc for the Arista label and making sure it's ready for holiday shoppers.

The self-titled album, which Hicks describes as "modern womp music," will be released on Tuesday. Its sound combines soul, funk, swamp blues and pop, with an emphasis on horns and Hicks' gutsy-gritty vocal style.

"I've been relying on instinct ever since I won on `Idol,'" Hicks says, "and I've been applying that same thought to all my business decisions. Can I feel it? Does it feel right? You can sugarcoat everything else around me, but you can't sugarcoat the instinct." Maybe not, but the leader of the Soul Patrol can be convinced to change his mind.

Originally, Hicks had thought he might take more time recording his big-league CD - perhaps even move its release date to early 2007 - but the little elves who manage and market him urged the reluctant singer to hustle.

No one wanted Hicks to lose momentum, or to risk disappointing fans who'd made him so popular on the Fox TV reality series.

"It's an important time for me, and people definitely are watching," Hicks says during a phone interview. "It's also a smart time for me to market this album."

That's why he started putting in 18-hour days, seven days per week, with producer Matt Serletic - known for his work with Rob Thomas, Matchbook Twenty, Collective Soul and Carlos Santana - and a team of studio professionals.

"It's been an intense recording process, but it's been the best time of my life," Hicks says. "I've only been getting four hours of sleep per night, but it's been worth it. And it doesn't look like there will be down time anytime soon."

A rapid-fire series of promotional appearances started in mid-November and will continue throughout this month, similar to the ones Hicks made after his coronation on "Idol" in May.

He's been on the couch with Jay Leno. He's ripped through harmonica solos for Regis and Kelly. He's performed a new song, "The Runaround," at the tree-lighting ceremony in Rockefeller Center. He's appeared on "Good Morning America" and been a presenter at the 2006 American Music Awards.

Media saturation, of course, is designed to help Hicks sell lots of records. Buzz around the industry indicates that Arista is looking to sell about five million units of "Taylor Hicks."

Ask Hicks about his own hopes for going multi-platinum, however, and he modestly declines to speculate. The most he'll do is point to advance sales on Amazon.com, which placed his CD among the Web site's top 11 sellers in music as of Wednesday.

"I'm happy to be selling them, period, from the trunk of my car or on Amazon," Hicks says. "I'll be interested to see what the album does, but it's a good kind of worry. This year has been an amazing stop in my musical career. I feel very fortunate and blessed to have the opportunity to move forward."

Producer Serletic, introduced to Hicks by label honcho Clive Davis, was recruited to ensure a successful transition. Serletic, a two-time Grammy winner, has credits that might make any newcomer feel confident. He's a trombone player, a songwriter, an arranger and the former CEO of Virgin Records.

Just as important, Hicks says, is the kinship he felt with Serletic as a Southern musician.

"We come from similar backgrounds - he's from Atlanta - and he understands my musical direction," Hicks says. "Some things we didn't agree on and some things we did agree on, but he was respectful of the artist. We established trust and that was great for me."

Serletic, for his part, held no preconceived notions about Hicks from television - he didn't watch the show or follow its contestants - and had no sense of "Idol" backlash to cloud his vision.

"My job was to get Taylor comfortable and able to express himself very quickly," Serletic says. "We had to do a lot in a very short period of time. He wasn't a complete neophyte in the studio; he'd made his way there before as a touring musician.

"My thought was: How can I help him grow? How can I help him express who he is and hold the bar up there? In that way, it was like being a coach. My role as a producer was in song selection - that's crucial - and in artistic development and arranging. We had an old-school mentality of record making."

Hicks' determination and energy in the studio impressed Serletic, who discovered that "after singing for five hours, he'd still be singing as hard as he was at the beginning. He had passion."

Settling on 12 tracks for the CD was challenging, Serletic admits, even though he and Hicks started the process with five or six strong contenders.

"We left a lot of stuff on the cutting room floor," Serletic says. "The final selection was really tricky. We were balancing who Taylor is - how he's trying to branch out and stretch - with who he's been in the past. Deciding that stuff was walking a fine line."

Now that the playlist is set in stone and the discs have been pressed, Hicks has set his sights on performing new material in concert. If all goes well, he says, a touring band will be assembled and rehearsed by the end of February or early March.

"I'm excited about next year, because that's when I get on another bus and start traveling," Hicks says. "Now I know what Willie Nelson and B.B. King mean when they say they're restless to get back on the road."

His tour is likely to target national theaters - say, the size of Birmingham's Alabama Theatre, which holds about 2,000 people - and large nightclubs that have a seating capacity that's "one step up from WorkPlay," Hicks says.

"The mentality I have as an artist is to start small and get bigger," he says. "That's what keeps me grounded. All I've ever wanted to do is play. I can't wait to get back out there and work the night shift again."