Toby Keith Takes an American Ride to the Top of the Charts

It’s another strong week on the Nielsen SoundScan Hot 200 Albums and Hot Country Albums charts this week as superstar Toby Keith returns to the top charts with his latest album, American Ride. Riding high on the strength of the two-week #1 hit of the same name, Toby earned a #3 spot on the Hot 200 Albums chart whilst claiming the top spot of the Hot Country Albums chart from Last week’s #1, Miranda Lambert’s Revolution, an album which drops to fourth this week.  Luke Bryan has no need to “apologize” to his label this week as he was just Doin His Thing with this week’s sixth best- seller on the Hot 200 Albums chart.  Doin’ My Thing moved over 57,000 copies this week to give Luke his career-high chart debut, which was good enough to place second on the Hot Country Albums chart.  Perennial chart darling Taylor Swift continues to be Fearless as her sophomore release continues to be 2009’s best-selling album, having sold nearly 4,000,000 copies since being released last November.   Johnny Cash might not be around anymore to grace the charts with new releases but his spirit is as his daughter Rosanne finds herself placing fifth on the Hot Country Albums chart with her remarkable collection of songs culled from a list made by Johnny himself.

The Zac Brown Band continues to prove why a Foundation is important for any artist’s career as their national debut pops up on the charts twice, once as the sixth best-selling album which features current hit “Toes” and a fine cover of Ray LaMontagne’s “Jolene” while their Cracker Barrel exclusive version, which features three live tracks instead of these two songs, enters the Hot 200 Albums Chart at 153. The Hannah Montana Movie Soundtrack continues to sell remarkably well months after the movie has been on DVD and now has moved over 1.5 million copies.  Jason Aldean is singing about “The Truth” these days but the truth is that his album continues to place inside the Hot Country Albums chart at eighth, where it is followed-up by the resilient debut album from Lady Antebellum, a record that doesn’t even have a current single, and Brooks & Dunn’s swan song #1’s…And Then Some, a record which has now moved over 125,000 copies, which is good enough to give the 20-year veterans the 10^th best selling spot on this week’s chart.

With “Getting You Home (The Black Dress Song)” giving Chris Young his first chart-topping single this week, the artists leads-off this week’s interesting chart information from the Nielsen SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart.  Young’s Man I Want To Be album continues its march towards the 100,000 copies marker with the record now nearing the 80,000 units sold mark.  Rascal Flatts and their record label re-issued the trio’s year-old Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 album with a new set of exclusive tracks and it was good enough for the trio to re-enter the Hot 200 Albums chart at 81. The sales helped bring the trio’s 2009 release Unstoppable  back into the top-half of the chart as the album was only 7 spots behind the Greatest Hits release and will, barring a total sales collapse, eclipse the 1,000,000 albums scanned mark next week.  Rounding out this week’s round-up is Georgia’s country rap artist Colt Ford.  Ford’s Ride Through The Country continues to march at a remarkable pace and with 3,000 more albums sold, Colt has managed to cross the 85,000 albums scanned marker, a number that is amazing given the fact that it was only a couple of weeks ago that a Colt Ford song, the title track which features John Michael Montgomery, even landed on the Hot Country Songs chart at Billboard.

Can Toby Keith retain the top spot next week or will Sugarland's new holiday album take the spot away from the superstar? Come back here to find out.