Country Billboard Chart News September 11, 2014

Country Billboard Chart News September 11, 2014

In Brief:  Billboard Country Charts

Country Album Chart ** No. 1 (6 non-consecutive weeks) "Platinum” Miranda Lambert

Hot Country Songs ** No.1 (7 weeks) ** “Burnin’ It Down” Jason Aldean

Country Airplay ** No.1 (1 week) ** "American Kids" Kenny Chesney

Country Digital Songs ** No.1 ** (7 weeks) ** “Burnin’ It Down” Jason Aldean

Billboard Top 200 / Country Album Chart News

Jeezy starts at No. 2 on the chart, while Bob Marley earns his highest-charting album ever.

Pop band Maroon 5 nabbed its second No. 1 album on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart (BB200), as its fifth studio release,  appropriately named V, debuts atop the list. It sold 164,182 copies in the week ending Sept. 7, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The start is a drop-off from the arrival of the group's last album, 2012's Overexposed, which launched with 222,000 at No. 2.

Miranda Lambert with PLATINUM vaulted 34-13 on the BB200 and 7-1 on the Billboard Country Album chart in its 14th chart frame.

This followed sale pricing of the set down to $6.99 at both iTunes and Amazon MP3, the album vaults 34-13 with a 94% sales gain to 17,000 sold for the week. Lambert's Twitter and Facebook accounts also spread the good word about the promotion, no doubt driving sales.

This news follows the announcement that Lambert is now in the running for nine CMA Awards, the most of any artist this year.

Moonshine in a Slump: Last weeks Country No.1 Brad Paisley’s MOONSHINE IN THE TRUNK fell 2-14 on BB200 (1-2 Country) selling 16,000 copies in his second week (down 70%, 2-week sales 69,000) and was replaced atop the chart by Lambert .

Compare that to Brad’s last album which has failed to hit GOLD when WHEELHOUSE slipped 2-7 on the BB2200 with 2nd week sales of 34,376 (2-week sales 134,969). Chart positions are one thing but hard retail figures cannot ignore the fact that the CMA host is on a downward spiral concerning selling albums. Fans are probably being cautious this time around who pre-ordered the last one and were left disappointed. 

There was just one new album on the Top 50 Country albums and that belong’s to Frank Foster with RHYTHM AND WHISKEY, which landed at No.20 on the BB200 (#4 Country) with confirmed sales of 9,070 copies as fans purchased the album digitally and through stores in the southeast and Texas.

Yes he is not to be confused with Frankie Ballard's “Sunshine & Whiskey” album which currently sets at No.34 Country in its 22nd week.

Frank Foster was a new name to me in 2013 when the Louisiana boy’s third DIY independently released album, SOUTHERN SOUL (Frank Foster Music), drew Hot Shot Debut applause at No.11 Billboard Country (No.67 BB200, 6,000 copies sold) for the chart week Sept 21, 2013. He previously appeared on the chart with his second set, “Red Wings and Six Strings”, which peaked where it debuted at No.30 on the Sept. 22, 2012, chart.

Foster is described as a throwback country singer and songwriter in the Hank Williams, Jr./Waylon Jennings/Steve Earle outlaw mold, Frank Foster was born and raised in Cypress Bottom, Louisiana, growing up on traditional country music and Southern rock. He began playing guitar while in his junior year at college, wrote his first song, and was soon gigging out, eventually making his way to Nashville to develop his career.

A Hank Williams Jr. album was what really turned him onto country and is his biggest influence along with Willie Nelson, Waylon, Skynyrd, Steve Earle, Marshall Tucker, Allman Brothers and Black Crowes.

Chances are that there are more than a few executives in Nashville wondering just who Frank Foster is! Each album has subsequently sold more than the last with debuts at #30, #11 and now #4 on the Country Music Albums chart.

Through his do-it-yourself ethos, Foster has taken the road rarely travelled. He currently acts as his own record label, management, booking agency and publishing company. How has Foster built up a loyal audience like this? Well, for starters, he’s released albums each of the past four years and thanks to his blend of southern rock and outlaw country music, Foster has built up a reputation as a live act not to miss. Much like Colt Ford and Corey Smith, Foster has relentlessly toured from town to town to build up this audience and has succeeded in crafting real, relatable music. Along with the touring and the music, the former oil rigging’ roughneck has been personable and real to his audience.

On Facebook Foster posts: Well y'all its official, FFNation has busted billboard wide open. "Rhythm&Whiskey" debuts @ #4 this week on the Billboard Country Charts. It also debuts @ #21 on the Billboard top 200 all genres. To say this is a dream come true would be an understatement. I would like to thank the Good Lord, my family&friends and the best fans in the business for doing what y'all do”

>> Watch "Southern Man" Official Music Video and "Cut Off Jeans"

CONNECT with Frank Foster: WEBSITE - FACEBOOK - TWITTER

Album: 11 tracks/ Time: 41:32 CD - MP3 - UK iTunes - Amazon.com

2014 Country Album sales Year-To Date:

20,220,000 (Physical sales 13,409,000 (down 9%) + Digital sales 6,811,000 (down -15.5%)) which is 22.7% down at the same point in 2013 (26,158,000 sales)

Billboard Top 200 / Country Album Placings

(Issue dated Chart week of September 20, 2014)

(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 20, 2014)

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:

• Jason Aldean notched a seventh straight week atop Hot Country Songs with “Burnin’ It Down” (Broken Bow), extending his longest reign and it marked the second-most weeks at No.1 for any song that reached the summit this year. Luke Bryan’s “Play It Again” wrapped a nine-week command atop the July 5 chart.
• Aldean also bagged the Hot Shot Debut at No. 17 with “Sweet Little Somethin’,” the second track from his album OLD BOOTS, NEW DIRT, due Oct. 7. The latter song gained Aldean the top two slots on the Country Digital Songs chart with a debut at No. 2 (58,000 sales). “Burnin’ ” also ruled the chart for a seventh week (79,000, up 3%)
• Garth Brooks makes his first appearance in six years on Hot Country Songs chart, as “People Loving People” (Pearl/RCA Nashville) made an entry at No. 25. His new track bow was due solely due to radio audience impressions. “People” isn’t available on GhostTunes.com and garthbrooks.com which are the only digital outlets that sell Brooks’ entire catalog, providing a platform for consumers to purchase album downloads and for online streaming. “People” previews his Nov. 28 album, his first studio set since 2001’s Scarecrow. 

Top 25 Hot Country Songs:

Jason Aldean with “Burnin’ It Down” stays Top the chart! 

Florida Georgia Line with former #1“Dirt” holds at #2

Kenny Chesney with “American Kids” holds at #3

Lady Antebellum with “Bartender” stays at #4

Luke Bryan with “Roller Coaster” is up two, #7 - #5 p

Dustin Lynch with “Where It’s At” (Yep, Yep) climbs two, #8 - #6 p

Sam Hunt with “Leave The Night On” is down one, #6 - #7 q

Cole Swindell with “Hope You Get Lonely Tonight” is up one, #9 - #8 p

Dierks Bentley with “Drunk On A Plane” falls four, #5 - #9 q

Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood’s former #1 “Somethin’ Bad” up, #11 - #10 p

Tim McGraw feat Faith Hill with “Meanwhile Back At Mama’s” falls one, #10 - #11 q

Chase Rice with “Ready Set Roll” holds at #12

Blake Shelton with “Neon Light” is up four slots, #17 - #13 p

Frankie Ballard with “Sunshine & Whiskey” sticks at #14

Brantley Gilbert with “Small Town Throwdown” is down two, #13 - #15 q

Maddie & Tae with “Girl In A Country Song” holds at #16

Jason Aldean with “Sweet Little Somethin' ” debuts at #17 NEW

Little Big Town with “Day Drinking” holds at #18

Eli Young Band with “Dust” is a non-mover at #19

Keith Urban with “Somewhere In My Car” is up one, #21 - #20 p

The Swon Brothers with “Later On” is up one, #22 - #21 p

Eric Church with “Cold One” slips two, #20 - #22 q

Brad Paisley with “River Bank” sinks eight, #15 - #23 q

Big & Rich with “Look At You” is down one, #23 - #24 q

Garth Brooks with “People Loving People” debuts at #25 NEW

Hot County Songs

** No.1 (7 weeks)  ** “Burnin’ It Down” Jason Aldean

** Airplay Gainer ** No.5 “Roller Coaster” Luke Bryan

** Digital Gainer/ Streaming ** No.13 “Neon Light” Blake Shelton

** Hot Shot Debut ** No.17 “Sweet Little Somethin' ”  Jason Aldean

Debut No.25 “People Loving People” Garth Brooks

Debut No.32 “Overrated” Tim McGraw

Debut No.43 “Good Man” Lee Brice

Billboard Country Airplay Chart Week of September 20, 2014

Kenny Chesney scored his first Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 in more than two years, as “American Kids” (Blue Chair/Columbia Nashville) lifted 2-1 to become his 23rd leader.

In its 12th chart frame “American Kids” logged 47.276 million audience impressions (+1.803 million) and received 7,325 radio plays (+329).

The song written by Rodney Clawson, Luke Laird and Shane McAnally was first released on June 20, 2014 as the lead single from the forthcoming album THE BIG REVIVAL due out Sept. 23. 

Chesney maintains his fourth-place standing among artists with the most No.1s since the chart launched in January 1990, trailing Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw and George Strait, each with 26. At the end of the relatively brisk 12-week ascent, it made the singer's first No.1 single to reach that prominence since "Come Over" reigned supreme in 2012.

Top local audience stations for “Kids” during the Sept. 1-7 Nielsen BDS tracking week: WNSH New York (1.3 million impressions); WUSN Chicago, WKLB Boston and KKGO Los Angeles (all with 1.1 million). “Kids” has sold 803,000 downloads to date.

• Garth Brooks who was aided significantly by coordinated hourly play on Sept. 3 at Clear Channel Media and Entertainment-owned stations, matched his third-highest debut with “People Loving People” (Pearl/RCA Nashville), which blasted in with the week’s Hot Shot Debut at No.19. He also snagged Most Increased Audience and “Most Added”  honours logging 20.541 million first week audience impressions, receiving 2,457 radio plays thanks to a massive 120 fresh radio commitments (ADDS). He opened at higher ranks only with “More Than a Memory,” which is the only song in the chart’s 24-year history to debut at No. 1 (Sept. 15, 2007), and “Good Ride Cowboy” (No. 18, Oct. 22, 2005). He first entered at No. 19 with “The Thunder Rolls” (May 18, 1991). “People” is just the 16th title to debut inside the top 20, with Brooks boasting the most such high-starters (four) of any act. “People” isn’t available on the sites as a stand-alone single.
• Chase Rice tied for the third-longest top 10 ascent in the chart’s archives, as “Ready Set Roll” (Dack Janiels/Columbia Nashville) steps 11-10 in its 43rd chart week. The only songs that took longer to reach the upper tier: Lee Brice’s “Love Like Crazy” (46 weeks; July 17, 2010) and Scotty McCreery’s “See You Tonight” (also 46; March 1). Like “Roll,” Chris Young’s twice-released “Voices” (Dec. 25, 2010) and David Nail’s “Let It Rain” (Dec. 10, 2011) needed 43 weeks apiece. 

Women of Country 2014 Watch:

There were no solo female artists on the Top 30 Country Airplay songs Miranda Lamberts’ duet with Carrie Underwood Somethin’ Bad” fell 10-11. “Girl In A Country Song” by Maddie & Tae slipped 23-24.

RaeLynn #38, Jana Kramer #42, Lucy Hale #56 and Linsay Ell #57 were the four solo females in the remaining 31-60 slots, to make it just 6.6% of the entire Top 60 chart.

Country Airplay

*** No. 1 (1 week) *** "American Kids" Kenny Chesney

** Most Increased Audience/ Most Added/ Hot Shot Debut ** No. 19 “People Loving People” Garth Brooks

Debut No. 51 "Shotgun Rider” Tim McGraw

                                                           

 Billboard Country Digital Singles Chart Week of September 20, 2014

• Jason Aldean's "Burnin' It Down" (Broken Bow / BBMG) held at No.1 with 79,000 downloads sold (up 3%) and climbed 13-11 on the all genre Digital Songs chart in its seventh chart frame. The now GOLD single has sold 737, 000 units to date. His new track “Sweet Little Somethin’” arrived at No.2 (#17 Digital Songs all genres) selling 58,000 copies from his album OLD BOOTS, NEW DIRT, due Oct. 7.
• Dustin Lynch with “Where It’s At” moved into the top 10 with an 18-10 shift in his 21st chart week (sales up 39%) and has now gone GOLD passing the ½-million mark with a new tally of 509,000.
• New album preview tracks from Tim McGraw “Overrated” (18,000 copies) and Lee Brice’s “Good Man”  (15,000 sales) made their debuts at Nos 18 & 22
• Brantley Gilbert’s 38 week “Bottoms Up” has now reached 1.5 million units sold.

Women Of Country Watch

There were no solo female artists on the Top 30 placings. On the Top 50 the lone female was RaeLynn with “God Made Girls” which fell 42-44

Dropping off the Top 30:

12-31 Darius Rucker “Homegrown Honey”  

23 – Off the Top 50 Lee Brice “That Don’t Sound Like You”

27-35 Jake Owen “Beachin’“

29-36 Joe Nichols “Yeah” 

30-37 Dustin Lynch “Mind Reader” 

Top 30 Digital Singles in Country Music (published September 11, 2014)

 (LW) Last Week (TW) This Week

*Numbers are rounded to nearest 1000^th

Country Aircheck/ Mediabase chart

Lady Antebellum held onto No1 on Mediabase with “Bartender” (Capitol). The song logged 7,623 radio spins (+289) and 55.318 million audience impressions (-1.488 million) from 149 tracking stations for the tracking week Aug 31 to September 6, 2014 and published chart September 9th.

Congratulations to UMG Nashville SVP/Promotion Royce Risser, Capitol Nashville VP/Promotion Steve Hodges and the entire Capitol Nashville promo team for scoring the week’s #1 single on the MEDIABASE Country singles charts with Lady Antebellum’s "Bartender." This is the second week in a row that the trio has held the #1 spot.

This is the first #1 from the group’s "747" album, scheduled for release on September 30th.  Sweet treats were due to be delivered to the Capitol Nashville office (Sept 8th) to celebrate the staff's success.

Congratulations also to RCA SVP/Promotion Keith Gale, Dir./National Promotion Josh Easler and the entire RCA Promo team for earning 122 MEDIABASE Country adds with Garth Brooks' "People Loving People."

"People Loving People" is the second highest-ever one-week add total at Country radio, next to Florida Georgia Line who recently broke the record with 127 adds (July 14th). Garth's last single, "More Than A Memory," was released in 2007.

Those adds gave Garth the "Most Added" title for the week.

Bagels were due to be delivered to RCA’s office (September 9th) to congratulate the staff on their achievement.

For a detailed report check out Country Aircheck Weekly Issue 413 - September 8, 2014 [PDF File]

For the very latest up to the minute Mediabase Chart (Past 7 Days) go here - www.mediabase.com