Country Artists Enjoy Sales Boost from CMA Music Festival Telecast

While not a super big week of releases for country music, last week’s airing of 2009 CMA Music Festival Country’s Night To Rock helped the genre stay steady.  So while no big release impacted the Nielsen SoundScan charts for country music the way that Whitney Houston’s latest album did for the pop/R&B world, Taylor Swift managed to wrangle the #1 Country album back from her older peers Reba McEntire and George Strait.  Fearless is once again the top-selling country album this week. Thanks to the television program and a third hit single in “Toes,” the Zac Brown Band’s The Foundation continues to march nearer to the Platinum status in units scanned (It’s already Platinum thanks to store inventory purchases from the label) while the effervescent Hannah Montana Soundtrack continues to find an audience as the third best-selling country album this week.  George Strait’s Twang and Reba’s Keep On Loving You round out the Top 5. 

Debuting at #6 on the Nielsen SoundScan Hot Country Albums chart is Chris Young with his Man I Want To Be album.  Buoyed by Young’s first Top 10 hit “Getting You Home (The Black Dress Song),” the album is one of our favorite releases so far this year.  After theseventh Placeholder Now Country 2 is Jason Aldean’s Wide Open, a record that has really grown on the Roughstock staff this past few weeks, at number 8 on the chart while the ninth spot on the chart belongs to John Fogerty with his collection of country cover tunes Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again. Darius Rucker finishes out this week’s Top 10 with his Live To Learn album.

This week’s chart rundown is slightly different from past ones in that we wanted to highlight 20 records this week given how successful the CMA Music Festival program was at promoting country music. Cross Canadian Ragweed, while not on the program, did release an all-new record this year, their 10^th album Happiness and all other Things was the eleventh best selling country album this week while Capitol Nashville’s Lady Antebellum continued to sell enough copies of their self-titled debut record to place twelfth on the Nielsen SoundScan Hot Country Albums chart this week.  Superstar duo Sugarland placed thirteenth this week with their nearly double platinum third album Love on the Inside.  Brad Paisley’s American Saturday Night was fourteenth on the chart whilst Jamey Johnson’s That Lonesome Song seemingly rose from the ashes and landed the fifteenth spot with a 70 percent sales increase this week.

Rounding out our rundown this week are, as always, five interesting albums that are ‘relegated’ to the lower rungs of the Nielsen SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart.  These albums typically represent new releases from established acts, like this week’s Cracker Barrel-exclusive Old Country Store from legend George Jones, or indie releases from bands outside of the mainstream, like this week’s debut from Texas Country acts The Casey Donahew Band and their Moving On record or the contined success of indie artist Colt Ford and his Ride Through The Country album, which has sold over 70,000 copies without any radio airplay.  Rounding out this list are the debut releases from Roughstock favorites Randy Houser and Love and Theft.  These dynamic new acts continue to impress with their wide array of talent.

Next week will see the addition of Brooks & Dunn’s 2 disc #1’s…and then some to the chart.  Will today’s CMA Award Nominee announcements help drive sales for artists? Check back next week to find out.  As always, feel free to discuss this week’s chart data in our comment area below.