Country
Billboard Chart News August 28, 2013
In Brief: Billboard Country Charts
Country
Album Chart ** No. 1 (2 weeks) ** CRASH
MY PARTY Luke Bryan
Hot
Country Songs ** No. 1 (2 weeks) ** “That’s
My Kind of Night” Luke Bryan
Country
Airplay ** No. 1 (1 week) ** "Little Bit Of Everything” Keith Urban
Country
Digital Songs ** No. 1 ** (2 weeks) “That’s
My Kind of Night” Luke Bryan
Billboard Top 200 / Country Album Chart
News
Luke Bryan's CRASH MY PARTY spends a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200
Albums (BB200), and the Billboard
Country Album chart shifting another 158,991
copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan (down 70%) for a 2 week total (including
street violations) of 687,360.
Out of 29 chart-toppers, it's only the
sixth album this year to spend multiple weeks at No. 1 with Taylor Swift's 2012
release RED being one. It is also the first country album by a male solo artist
to spend multiple weeks atop the list since pop and R&B veteran Lionel Richie with TUSKEGEE racked up
two frames at No. 1 in the spring of 2012 or by a male “core” country artist to spend two weeks at #1 since George Strait’s 50 Number Ones did the
trick in October 2004.
The second-week sum of “Crash My Party”
was enough to fend off a challenge from the set that arrived at No. 2: John
Mayer's "Paradise Valley" which sold 143,582 units.
Bryan also headed The Billboard 200 for
a week in March with Spring Break…Here To Party. He’s one of only two artists
to top the chart for three weeks so far this year. The other is Justin
Timberlake, who did it with just one album, The 20/20 Experience, in March and
April.
Duo Florida Georgia Line with HERE’S TO THE GOOD TIMES dropped 8-12
on the BB200 and held at No.2 on the
country chart. Their album has now pulled ahead of this weeks No.4 country slot
Blake Shelton’s BASED ON A TRUE STORY…to
become the top-selling country album so far in 2013. “Here’s To The Good Times”
which was released December 4, 2012 has sold 845K copies so far this year which
is 4,000 more than Based On A True Story… (The duo’s album sold an additional
181K copies in 2012.)
Country rap/Southern rock duo The Lacs (Clay “Uncle Snap” Sharpe and lead vocalist/ guitarist Brian “
Rooster” King) enjoyed a career-best rank and biggest sales week on Billboard’s
Top Country Albums with 14,460 copies
sold to land at No.3 on the country
chart (#23 BB200, #5 on Billboard Rap Charts) with their third album, KEEP IT REDNECK (Backroad/Average
Joes).
Their previous best was a No.16 bow (#68
BB200) with 190 PROOF, which debuted in April 2012 with 6,745 units sold and was
on country album chart for over 72 consecutive weeks. The duo first appeared on
the chart with “Country Boy’s Paradise”, which set an opening-week peak at No.
52 in March 2011. The new album also starts with the duo’s best rank at No.7 on
the Independent Albums tally.
The Lacs (short for Loud Ass Crackers)
also wrote the theme song for “Mud Lovin’ Rednecks,” a new reality show that
premiered Aug. 27 on Animal Planet.
This third studio album released August 20th from the duo was
produced by label CEO Shannon "Fat Shan" Houchins. Sixteen tracks
include "Field Party (Remix)" featuring newcomer JJ Lawhorn and Colt
Ford and the album is a spitting image of how the boys live their life. Y’all call
it an accent:
We call it a drawl / Y’all say gimme that / And we say please,
miss / Y’all eat oatmeal /
And we eat cheese grits / We do it for the shiners / And them dirt
road riders / For them forty hour workers / And the party all nighters
The title track, “Keep It Redneck” is a
play-it-loud and proud new song which proclaims the importance of staying true
to your roots. "Relacs" introduces Season 12 American Idol
contestant, Sarah Ross, on this fun, beach-themed, summertime song. Brian King
and Clay Sharpe, continue to challenge the status quo with the duo’s trademark in-your-face
musical magic as well as a few new fresh variations. “Our music is not one
dimensional,” Clay Sharpe of The LACS says. “We take the good out of
rock, the good out of country and the good out of rap and mix
them together and create something different. We build from scratch.” Brian King says, “That’s what our fans want and
that’s exactly what we’re giving them.”
The video for “Keep It Redneck” garnered the fastest rising views in The
LACS’ history already reaching over 250,000 views. Touring over 150 dates per
year, what began organically on a street corner and continued in Walmart
parking lots all across the South, has now spread to fields filled with fans
primed to hear The LACS’ latest.
Critical reception The Lacs “Keep It Redneck” - 15 Tracks / Time: 54:15
Roughstock (Rating:
4 STARS) There's
a growing movement in Country Music and that has helped artists like The Lacs
move hundreds of thousands of albums. The Lacs move from the harder-edged
"Keep It Redneck" to the softer, timeless country melodies of
"Kick Dust" and "She's
Runnin'" -- both which feature their label's A&R exec Noah Gordon on
vocals -- while "Empites" has a jovial, retro surf rock feel to it as
well. There are moments where crossover-ready songs like "Make Things
Right" and "Get Lost" come across the album but what will
surprise many is how strong the songwriting and production is..... It's not for
everyone, but neither is any sort of music and that's what's so appealing about
Keep It Redneck. The Lacs know who they are and that's exactly what they sing and
rap about throughout the album.
27-year old Mississippi native, Charlie Worsham's debut album, RUBBERBAND (Warner
Brothers), which features the Top 20 radio airplay hit "Could It Be"
landed at No.12 Country (#64 BB200) selling some 6,000 units.
He is known for his banjo skills and signature
orange chucks. He opened for Taylor Swift on her SPEAK NOW Tour, is due to hit
the road with Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley. "Could It Be" is a song about a friendship turning into
a romantic relationship but Charlie said those lyrics have no basis in his real
life. Speaking of his friend and "Could It Be" co-writer Ryan
Tyndell, Charlie says:
"We were both just in the dumps, man. We didn't have anything going on.
We were kind of depressed. 'Could It Be' is such a hopeful song, I think we
wrote it out of a desperate need to have something hopeful going on."
Critical reception for “Rubberband” -
Roughstock (Rating 3 STARS)
When Charlie Worsham sings about Mississippi in July, in a
mid-tempo song of the same name, he knows exactly what he’s talking about. This
talented new country singer was born in Jackson, Mississippi. The music Worsham
makes is by no means Mississippi Delta sounds, though. He’s Country all the
way, with enough pop sheen to attract radio airplay, but not so much that it
scares off purists..... Although Rubberband is Worsham’s debut album, he’s also
attracted a few A-list performers to help him out with it. Both Vince Gill and
Marty Stuart contribute to “Tools of the Trade,” a song about the specialized
music business skill set....As solid as Rubberband is, Worsham still sounds
like he’s working to develop his own voice in a few places....As a vocalist,
Worsham leans closer to the Blake Shelton/Keith Urban model than, say, the low
voiced types, such as Trace Adkins. He sings with a high, pure voice that would
also sound really great on bluegrass harmonies – if he ever decides to go that
route. Rubberband is not an instant classic. Nevertheless, in the places where
it’s good, it’s really good...The best thing about Rubberband is that, no
matter how much it rocks, it never sounds like rock music in a country boy’s
clothing.
Nashvillegab
(Rating: Grade: A) "Rubberband" is a modern retelling of country
music. While incorporating a vast collection of characters, it brings
traditional storytelling into a contemporary setting. Unlike many of his
counterparts, he believes in creating a captivating set, complete with varied
tempos and themes. ..With beer-trucks-parties being the central theme to the
male-dominated format, it's refreshing for a newcomer to make such bold
statements with his music. He goes against the grain, setting a new bar for
everyone else around him.
Country Weekly (Rating: A) In a world of thumping cadences, rhythmic
recitations and not-another, yes-another party anthems, Charlie Worsham is
breathing some incredibly fresh—and talented—air into country music that makes
it sound a little like, surprise, country music. Honest acoustic, tinkling
mandolin and, lo and behold, some banjo give Rubberband such a pure country
sound that many would define it as “rootsy” in a New Grass Revival meets
Diamond Rio kind of way.....It seems unfair to isolate any one track over
another since all stand on their own. They’re laudable as much for their unique
nature as they are for their honest-to-goodness goodness.
Peter Cooper On Music: Charlie Worsham off to a happy beginning
Just outside the top 25 Country albums,
with sales of over 3,000 copies at No.26 (#124 BB200), saw the debut of Tracy Lawrence with his new album release HEADLIGHTS,
TAILLIGHTS AND RADIOS, a $50,000 Kickstarter fan funded project. He
recently performed at the Grand Ole Opry Tuesday, August 20th in Nashville, TN.
Lawrence’s 14th studio album is his first on the Lawrence Music Group label,
and his first since ‘The Singer’ in 2011. The ‘Time Marches On’ hitmaker says
this is an album he’s been wanting to make for years, and he’s glad the current
trends allow for a guitar heavy collection of songs.
Critical reception for “Headlights,
Taillights and Radios” - 11
Tracks / Time: 39:30
Roughstock (Rating: 4 STARS) There are plenty of veteran country stars
still making music, even as their careers have moved away from mainstream
radio. One singer who still seems to be able to be relevant to Radio, even if
it's only every couple of years at this point -- is Tracy Lawrence. Much like
his 90s country brethren Tim McGraw and George Strait, a lot of what makes
Lawrence who he is, is his ear for
selecting material that suits his strong, identifiable voice.....The melodies
of much of Headlights, Taillights and Radios may suggest a modernized Tracy
Lawrence ...it is that voice that ultimately makes Headlights, Taillights and
Radios the strong album that it is.
"Footprints On The
Moon" (Lyric
Video)
Of note Jimmy Buffett’s 28th studio effort SONGS FROM ST. SOMEWHERE debuted at No.4
on the Billboard 200 (#1 Independent Albums) selling 55,357 copies.
It’s his 11th top 10 album; his sixth to make the
top five. Buffett first charted in March 1974—before most of the acts in this
week’s top 10 were born.
Buffett's ranking makes the record tied
for the second-highest-charting album of the singer/songwriter's long career.
Two other Buffett albums also reached
the fourth slot on the Billboard albums tally -- 1996's Banana Wind and 2006's
Take the Weather with You -- while Jimmy topped the chart in 2004 with License
to Chill. Buffett's best-selling album
to date is his 1985 hits compilation, Songs You Know by Heart, which has sold
more than 7 million copies in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Jimmy has just released a new video for "I Want
to Go Back to Cartagena," one of the tunes from Songs from St.
Somewhere. The clip features live and
studio footage of Buffett duetting with Colombian singer/actress Fanny Lu in
both English and Spanish. (C) ABC News Radio
The two musical icons Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby's reuniting has earned them a
debut at #38 on the Country chart
and #1 on the Billboard Bluegrass Album Chart with their Live album set CLUCK OL' HEN (Skaggs Family Records)
which was released on August 20 - See Press Release
Bruce Hornsby
Reunites With Ricky Skaggs for 'Cluck Ol' Hen'
(Issue dated
Chart week of September 7, 2013)
(Country
Album positions #1 - #25)
(TW) This
Week, (LW) Last Week, Co (Country Album Chart placing / Movement)
Top 25 Hot Country Songs (week of September 7, 2013)
On Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart - which
blends:
a) All-format airplay, as monitored
by BDS
b) Sales, as tracked by Nielsen
SoundScan and
c) Streaming, (tracked
by Nielsen BDS from such services as Spotify, Muve, Slacker, Rhapsody, Rdio and
Xbox Music, among others) according to BDS it results in:
Luke Bryan with “That’s My Kind Of Night” held onto the top slot for a second
successive week.
One week after Luke became the
second male artist to log two songs simultaneously in the top three on
Hot Country Songs (Tim McGraw was the first), Florida Georgia Line became the
first duo/group in the Nielsen BDS era (since January 1990) to manage the feat,
as “Round Here” rose 8-3, joining its record-shattering,
24-week former chart-topper “Cruise”
which holds at No.2 on the chart’s medal podium.
Jason Aldean posted his best Hot Country Songs rank in nearly a year,
as “Night Train” (Broken Bow) flew
up 11-4 in its 12th week (his 18th
top 10), adding Airplay Gainer stripes (up 15% according to Nielsen BDS), his
best since “Take a Little Ride” spent two weeks at the summit in October 2012.
Jennifer Nettles’ “That Girl”
(Mercury) debuts at No. 37 on Hot
Country Songs and No. 23 on Country Digital Songs (19,000 sold), her first solo
appearance on the latter chart. She previously appeared as Bon Jovi’s vocal
guest on “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” which reigned for two weeks on Hot
Country Songs seven years ago. She showcased her new single with a performance
of “Girl” on Aug. 20 on ABC’s “Good
Morning America.”
Top 25 Hot Country Songs:
Luke Bryan with “That’s My Kind Of Night” stays
Top The Chart! #1
Florida Georgia Line with “Cruise” stays at #2
Florida Georgia Line with “Round Here” is up 5 places,
#8 - #3 p
Jason Aldean with “Night Train” jumps up seven
slots, #11 - #4 p
Brett Eldredge with “Don’t Ya” stays at #5
Keith Urban with “Little Bit Of Everything” stays
at #6
Thomas Rhett with “It Goes Like This” is up
three slots, #10 - #7 p
Carrie Underwood with “See You Again” is down one,
#7 - #8 q
Luke Bryan with “Crash My Party” falls
six, #3 - #9 q
Hunter
Hayes with “I Want Crazy” is down six, #4 - #10 q
Tyler Farr with “Redneck Crazy” is up one,
#12 - #11 p
Randy Houser with “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight”
falls #9 - #12 q
Easton Corbin with “All Over The Road” is up
two, #15 - #13 p
Billy Currington with “Hey Girl” is up two, #16 -
#14 p
Blake
Shelton with “Boys ‘Round Here” falls three, #13 - #15 q
Darius Rucker with former No.1 “Wagon Wheel” is down, #14 - #16 q
Blake Shelton with “Mine Would Be You”is up
four, #21 - #17 p
Justin Moore with “Point at You” is up one
place, #19 - #18 p
Tim McGraw with “Southern Girl” is up one
slot, #20 - #19 p
Lee Brice with “Parking Lot Party” is up two
slots, #22 - #20 p
Chris Young with “Aw Naw” is up two slots, #23 - #21 p
Tim McGraw & Taylor
Swift with
“Highway Don’t Care” falls, #17 - #22 q
Train feat Ashley
Monroe with
“Bruises” hops up, #30 - #23 p
Kip Moore with “Hey Pretty Girl” drops six,
#18 - #24 q
Lady Antebellum with “Goodbye Town” stays at #25
Hot Country Songs
** No.1 (2 weeks) / Streaming Gainer
** “That’s My Kind Of Night” Luke Bryan
** Airplay Gainer ** No.4 “Night Train”
Jason Aldean
** Digital Gainer ** No.23 “Bruises” Train feat. Ashley
Monroe
** Streaming Gainer ** No.3 “Crash My Party” Luke Bryan
** Hot Shot Debut ** No.37 “That Girl”
(Mercury) Jennifer Nettles
Billboard Country Airplay Chart Week of September 7, 2013
Keith Urban claimed his 15th No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay
tally as “Little Bit of Everything” (Hit Red/Capitol Nashville) stepped 2-1 with the chart’s fourth-largest
overall increase (up 2.9 million audience impressions, according to Nielsen
BDS).
Urban most recently topped the chart
with “You Gonna Fly,” which reigned for two weeks in March 2012. Between that
track and his new leader, Urban peaked at No. 6 with “For You” last September.
The 18-month absence at No.1 is the artist’s third-longest. Since his first
week at No. 1 in February 2001, his lengthiest stretch between solo leaders was
the 35 months that lapsed between “Better Life” in 2005 and “You Look Good in
My Shirt” in 2008. That time span however included 2 titles that peaked at No.
2, two others that peaked inside the top five and one other Top 10 title.
"Little Bit of Everything"
was released on May 20, 2013 as the first single from his upcoming eighth
studio album, FUSE due to drop September
10, 2013. The song written by Brad Warren, Brett Warren and Kevin Rudolf has
taken 15 chart weeks to reach the
summit. This week it logged 46.087
million audience impressions (+2.861) and received 6,737 radio plays (+472) .
Label sources say that the second radio
single will be “When We Were Us,” a duet with Miranda Lambert. The album also
features a duet with Eric Church, titled “Raise ’Em Up.”
Billy Currington, returned to the
Country Airplay Top 10 for the first time in 16 months with “Hey Girl” (Mercury), advancing 11-10 in its 25th chart week, marking
the singer’s 15th song to reach the upper tier. He last competed in that region
of the chart with “Let Me Down Easy,” which became his sixth No. 1 in April
2011. Currington’s new song introduces his fifth studio album (his first in
three years), WE ARE TONIGHT, due Sept. 17.
Florida Georgia Line with "Round Here” climbed 7-4 taking the “Most Increased Audience” honours with a 4.338 million audience gain (40.724 million
total), receiving 5,975 plays (+555).
Brad Paisley with his latest single "I Can’t Change The World” at No.39 won
the “Most Added” trophy with 28 new radio commitments (ADDS) .
The only song to debut on the chart at
No.59 was Dierks
Bentley “I Hold On”
(Capitol Nashville) and thus landed the week’s “Hot Shot Debut” cup.
Country Airplay
*** No. 1 (1 week) *** "Little Bit
Of Everything” Keith Urban
** Most Increased Audience ** No.4
"Round Here” Florida Georgia Line
** Most Added ** No. 39 "I Can’t
Change The World” Brad Paisley
** Hot Shot Debut ** No.59 “I Hold On” (Capitol
Nashville) Dierks Bentley
Billboard Country Digital Singles Chart Week of September 7, 2013
Luke Bryan held onto the top of the
Country Digital Singles chart with “That’s
My Kind of Night” for a second week. Sales of 126,000 were down some 23% on
its debut week.
His first album single, the title cut “Crash My Party”, returned to the chart
at #5. The song’s sales were held back last week because many fans that had
previously purchased the song opted to take advantage of iTunes’ “Complete My
Album” feature.
Thomas Rhett held at No.3 with “It Goes Like This”, its sales of 51,000
took it part the GOLD certification 500,000 mark.
Other songs to gain RIAA
Gold-eligibility are Billy Currington at #18 (508K total
in 17 weeks) with “Hey Girl” and
also Easton Corbin’s “All Over The Road,”
at #21 (512K total in 22 weeks)
Jason Aldean’s “Night Train” climbed up 4-8 in his 10th chart week.
Blake Shelton moved 15-8 with “Mine Would Be You,” in its 6th chart
week.
Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles debuted on the
chart with sales of 19,000 for “That
Girl,” the lead single from her upcoming solo debut.
Top 30 Digital Singles
in Country Music (published August 28, 2013)
(LW) Last Week (TW) This Week
*Numbers are rounded to nearest 1000th
Billboard Boxscores (Selective Country
concerts)
Rank Artist: #14
Event Venue City/State:
Brad Paisley, Chris Young, Lee Brice, The Henningsens San Manuel Amphitheater Devore, Calif.
Dates: Aug. 24, 2013 Gross Sales: $702,338 Attend:
19,978 /19,978
Capacity Shows: 1 /1 Sellouts Prices: $79, $25
Promoters: Live Nation
Rank Artist: #33
Event Venue City/State:
Sheryl Crow Durham Performing Arts Center Durham, N.C.
Dates: Aug. 3, 2013 Gross Sales: $155,510 Attend: 2,003 /2,341
Capacity Shows: 1 /0 Sellouts
Prices: $126, $89, $79, $59
Promoters: AEG Live/PFM/Nederlander
