Country Billboard Chart News August 8, 2013

Country Billboard Chart News August 8, 2013

RIAA Certifications

Platinum = Sales of over 1-million units

Gold =  Sales of over 500,000 units

Tyler Farr - Single: "Redneck Crazy" (Gold)

Hunter Hayes - Album: self-titled (Platinum)

Hunter Hayes  -  Single: "I Want Crazy" (Platinum)

Brad Paisley -  Single: "Remind Me" (2x PLATINUM)

Randy Houser - Single: 'Runnin’ Outta Moonlight’ (Gold)

Brett Eldredge – Single: "Don’t Ya" (Gold)

In Brief:  Billboard Country Charts

Country Album Chart ** No. 1 (7  weeks) ** “Here’s To The Good Times” Florida Georgia Line 

Hot Country Songs ** No. 1 (23 weeks) ** “Cruise”  Florida Georgia Line

Country Airplay ** No. 1 (2 weeks) ** “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” Randy Houser 

Country Digital Songs ** No. 1 ** (24 weeks) “Cruise”  Florida Georgia Line

Billboard Top 200 / Country Album Chart News

Robin Thicke scored his first No. 1 album. "Blurred Lines," his sixth studio effort, starts atop the Billboard 200 with 176,559 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The sexy title track (which features T.I. + Pharrell) has sold 4,268,000 copies—and is still going strong. The sexy song this week becomes the first song in digital history to top 400K in weekly sales four times.

Pop trio Emblem3 landed the fifth debut in the top 10 this week, as its first album, "Nothing to Lose," enters at No. 7 with 45,969. The group gained fame on the 2012 edition of Fox TV's competition show "The X Factor," where it placed fourth. The winner of this year's series, country singer Tate Stevens, debuted and peaked at No. 18 on the May 11 chart with his self-titled album, selling 16,830 copies.

Florida Georgia Line sold 28,313 copies of HERE’S TO THE GOOD TIMES (down 4%) and dropped 6-10 on the Bilboard Top 200 Chart (BB200).The album holds at #1 on Top Country Albums for the seventh week. 

This enabled it to tie the all-time record for most weeks at #1 for an album by an ongoing duo. Excluding collaborations that record was set in 1996 when Brooks & Dunn’s BORDERLINE spent seven weeks on top.

“Here’s To The Good Times” is the first debut album to log seven or more weeks atop the country chart since Taylor Swift’s Taylor Swift amassed 24 weeks on top in 2007-2008.

Country Music Hall of Fame honoree Vince Gill and steel guitar master Paul Franklin made their bow at No.25 on the BB200 and landed at No. 4 on Top Country Albums with BAKERSFIELD (MCA Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville), a collaborative tribute set honouring the city’s two biggest musical figures, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens.

It drew Hot Shot debut honours as the only country set to debut on the top 25 with sales of 12,043 copies.

“Bakersfield” is only the fourth tribute or concept-style album to open inside the top five during the 22-year-old SoundScan era. It follows Jamey Johnson’s Living For A Song: A Tribute To Hank Cochran, which bowed at No. 3 last Autumn selling 32,558 copies on its opening week on October 24, 2012. The short list of lofty starts also includes the multi-artist R&B tribute project Rhythm Country & Blues, which popped on at No.2 in 1994, and Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles, a various-artist tribute that bowed at No. 3 in 1993.

The album marked Vince Gill’s 23rd charted title on Top Country Albums and the first for Franklin.

Critical reception for “Bakersfield”

GAC - Country Music Hall of Famer Vince Gill and renowned pedal steel player Paul Franklin go deep inside the California Country vault on Bakersfield, paying tribute to the city’s legendary sons Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Pulling five songs from each artist, and all from 1961 -1974, Bakersfield twangs hard with a classic sound as reliable as the many pairs of boots that walked those dusty SoCal roads....Though the album remains faithful to the feel of the original cuts, the fresh musical interaction between Vince and Paul is captivating. ....However, there’s no doubt that this is the Vince and Paul show as the two drive an expert set all the way to Bakersfield, California’s Country Music Capital made famous by Buck and Merle.

Roughstock: (Rating 5 STARS) ...Featuring 10 tracks (5 from Owens and 5 from Haggard) Bakersfield allows the duo to shine as musicians in addition to Vince Gill's superlative singing. Franklin and Gill both take their time on extended solos while the core band of Greg morrow, Willie Weeks, JT Corenfloss and John Hobbs are allowed to shine as well..... There's absolutely nothing about Bakersfield that isn't a treasure. Mainstream channels may not care much for this kind of music anymore but it's still as vibrant and fantastic as it has always been and in the loving hands of Vince Gill and Paul Franklin it shines once again. Here's hoping there will be more albums where Bakersfield comes from.

Associated Press - For those dismayed by contemporary country music’s lack of steel guitar and shuffle rhythms, “Bakersfield” is your antidote. With Vince Gill no longer competing for top radio hits, he turns his attention to one of the bedrock styles of the traditional American music that he loves.

Recruiting Paul Franklin, by far the most recorded pedal steel guitarist in Nashville in the last 25 years - Gill swaggers into the Telecaster-and-steel country sounds of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, heroes to these two musicians and millions of others who revere brawny, succinctly poetic working-class music....... Gill and Franklin dig out less familiar gems such as “Holding Things Together” by Haggard and “He Don’t Deserve You Anymore” by Owens, both as good as anything on “Bakersfield” — a great country album in any era.

Available on Amazon.UK [Import] CD - Vinyl  

After 66 weeks on the chart Carrie Underwood’s BLOWN AWAY (No.14 Country, No.86 BB200) has now sold over 1.5 million copies.

In his second week at retail Guy Clark’s MY FAVORITE PICTURE OF YOU fell from 62-180 on the Billboard 200 and dropped off the Top 25 country albums selling 2,524 copies (down 55%; 8,156 sold in 2-weeks)

YEAR-TO-DATE Overall unit Sales for Country albums

= 22,505,000 down by 2.9%

Billboard Top 200  Placings / Top 25 Country Albums

(Issue dated Chart week of August 17, 2013)

(Country Album positions #1 - #25)

(TW) This Week, (LW) Last Week, Co (Country Album Chart placing / Movement)

Billboard Catalog Chart

Entering the Billboard 200 at No.35 due to a $6.99 iTunes sale for double albums from music’s classic stars, Johnny Cash’s The Essential Johnny Cash sold 9,973 copies, up by 604% on the previous week (1,416) to reach a new total of 1,461,129. 

The album was the 6th best selling catalog title of the week.

  

Top 25 Hot Country Songs (week of August 17, 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:

Duo Florida Georgia Line remained atop the chart with “Cruise” making it 23 non-consecutive weeks, now 2-weeks clear of the pack in the charts entire history.

Tyler Farr scored his first top 10 on Hot Country Songs, as “Redneck Crazy” (Columbia Nashville) jumps 11-9 in its 22nd chart week and joins Brett Eldredge as the only rookies to score their first top 10s on that chart so far this year. 

Eldredge’s “Don’t Ya” (Atlantic/Warner Music Nashville) achieves a new peak at No. 5.

Keith Urban’s “Little Bit of Everything” (Hot Red/Capitol Nashville) becomes his 29th consecutive top 10 (counting only non-seasonal, promoted singles since his first ever top 10 in August 2000) as it rises 12-10. 

Urban’s streak of 29 straight top 10s is the chart’s third-longest in the Nielsen BDS era (since January 1990), behind Tim McGraw’s 34 (1994-2004) and George Strait’s 31 (1982-1991). Following with 27 a piece are Alan Jackson (1990-1997) and Brad Paisley (2000-2011).

Top 25 Hot Country Songs:

Florida Georgia Line with “Cruise” stays Top The Chart #1

Hunter Hayes with “I Want Crazy” stays at  #2

Randy Houser with “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” stays at  #3

Luke Bryan with “Crash My Party” stays at #4

Brett Eldredge with “Don’t Ya” is up two, #7 - #5  p

Blake Shelton with “Boys ‘Round Here” is down one, #5 - #6 q

Florida Georgia Line with “Round Here” is down one, #6 - #7 q

Carrie Underwood with “See You Again” is up one,  #9 - #8 p

Tyler Farr with “Redneck Crazy” is up two, #11 - #9 p

Keith Urban with “Little Bit Of Everything” is up two, #12 - #10 p

Darius Rucker  with former No.1 “Wagon Wheel” drops one slot,  #10 - #11 q

Kip Moore with “Hey Pretty Girl” falls #8 - #12 q

Thomas Rhett with “It Goes Like This” is up one place, #14 - #13 p

Jason Aldean with “Night Train” jumps up three slots, #17 - #14  p

Billy Currington with “Hey Girl” stays at #15

Easton Corbin with “All Over The Road” is down three, #13 - #16 q

Lee Brice with “Parking Lot Party” is up 3 slots, #20 - #17 p

Justin Moore with “Point at You” is up three,  #21 - #18  p

Tim McGraw & Taylor Swift with “Highway Don’t Care” is down, #18 - #19 q

The Band Perry with “Done” falls, #16 - #20 q

Tim McGraw with “Southern Girl” jumps up seven, #28 - #21  p

Chris Young  with “Aw Naw” moves up 2 slots,  #24 - #22 p

Florida Georgia Line with “Get Your Shine On” is down, #22 - #23 q

Zac Brown Band with “Jump Right In” drops six, #13 - #19 q

Lady Antebellum with “Goodbye Town” moves up, #27 - #24 p

Jake Owen with “Anywhere With You” is down two, #23 - #25  q

Hot Country Songs

** No.1 (23 weeks)  **  “Cruise”  Florida Georgia Line

** Streaming Gainer ** No. 14 “Night Train” Jason Aldean

** Airplay & Digital Gainer ** No.28 “Mine Would Be You” Blake Shelton

** Hot Shot Debut ** No.40 “That’s My Kind Of Night” Luke Bryan

Billboard Country Airplay Chart Week of August 17, 2013

Randy Houser claimed his first multiweek leader and achieves the biggest one-week audience sum since the Country Airplay chart converted to audience-based rankings in January 2005, as “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” (Stoney Creek) dominated the chart for a second week with 47.416 million audience impressions (up by 1.631 million) receiving 6,873 radio plays (+229).

Houser’s second No. 1 follows “How Country Feels,” which topped the Feb. 2 chart, and surpasses the previous audience mark (46.7 million) that Bryan’s “Crash My Party” set three weeks ago (on the July 27 chart). Houser’s track is the 20th song to reach No. 1 so far this year and the 10th among those to hold for more than one week.

At this same point in 2012, 24 songs had spent time atop the chart and nine of those had held for more than one week, but none had stayed more than two weeks.

Luke Bryan scored his highest debut ever on the Country Airplay chart and the largest overall since April as his "That's My Kind of Night" (Capitol Nashville) bowed at No. 21 this week.

He lands all 3 trophies this chart week winning “Hot Shot Debut”, “Most Increased Audience” and “Most Added” honours. 

The song gained a 15.387 million audience (+15.387), receiving 1748 plays, thanks to 79 new radio commitments (ADDS) out of the 140 stations monitored for the chart. 

It was driven mostly by coordinated hourly play on July 30 at Clear Channel-owned stations.

It's the biggest bow on the tally since Blake Shelton's "Boys 'Round Here" (featuring Pistol Annies & Friends) started at No. 19 on the April 13-dated tally.

The entry surpasses Bryan’s previous opening-week benchmark, a No. 28 debut in April with previous single “Crash My Party,” which dropped 5-8 in its 17th chart week following three weeks at the summit last month. “Party” is the lead single/title track from Bryan’s fourth full-length album, due Aug. 13.

Luke hosts a sold-out album release show on Aug. 15 at Irving Plaza in New York. The new album is also the centerpiece of a Bryan-themed programming weekend Aug. 10-11 on CMT.

Florida Georgia Line and Justin Moore freshened up the Top 10. FGL logged the duo’s third straight top 10 contender with “Round Here” (Republic Nashville) which moved 12-9 in its 12th week and Moore inked his fifth overall with “Point at You” (Valory) which stepped up 11-10 (up 2 million impressions) with the lead single from his third full-length album, OFF THE BEATEN PATH, due Sept. 17.

Country Airplay

*** No. 1 (2 weeks) *** "Runnin' Outta Moonlight" Randy Houser 

** Hot Shot Debut/Most Increased Audience/ Most Added * No. 21 "That's My Kind Of Night" Luke Bryan

Debut No. 48 "Days Of Gold" (RCA Atlantic) Jake Owen

Debut No. 58 "Crushin'" (RCA Nashville) Bush Hawg

Debut No. 59 "Blue Skies" (Sugar Hill/Vanguard) Uncle Kracker

Billboard Country Digital Singles Chart Week of August 17, 2013

                                                           

Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise” once again holds the top slot with sales approaching

 5.5 million copies (2-million attributed to the Nelly remix). 

Sales this week of 108,000 were down 9% but still easily held off Luke Bryan’s “Crash My Party” which stayed at #2 with sales of 62,000.

The Country Airplay chart topper “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” from Randy Houser moved 5-4.

Tyler Farr “Redneck Crazy” which remained at No.9 sold another 41,000 copies to pass the Gold RIAA certification (over ½-million copies)

Carrie Underwood also saw GOLD with her latest radio single  “See You Again” which moved 15-13, selling 28,000 copies to reach a new tally of 502,000.

Cassadee Pope’s “Wasting All These Tears” (35-26),  Joe Nichols’ “Sunny And 75” (34-28) both entered the top 30 joining Eli Young Band with their new single “Drunk Last Night” (42-29).

Top 30 Digital Singles in Country Music (published August 7, 2013)

 (LW) Last Week  (TW) This Week 

*Numbers are rounded to nearest 1000^th

Billboard Boxscores (Selective Country concerts)

Rank Artist: #18

Event Venue City/State:

Blake Shelton, Easton Corbin, Jana Kramer  First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre Tinley Park, Ill.

Dates: Aug. 3, 2013   Gross Sales: $911,336    Attend: 27,996/27,996

Capacity Shows: 1/1  Sellouts Prices:  $55, $25  Promoters: Live Nation