Lady Antebellum & Others Experience CMA Awards Sales Boost

As expected on the charts this past week, a majority of country artists experienced major advances on the Sales chart this week.  While Carrie Underwood still has country music’s top-seller with her two-week old Play On album, it was the albums from artists like Lady Antebellum, Sugarland, Taylor Swift and Jamey Johnson that showed remarkable sales growth, thanks to the 43rd CMA Telecast last Wednesday.  In addition to sales chart success, Lady Antebellum became the first non-crossover country artist to score a #1 single on the iTunes and Amazon sales charts this week as “Need You Now” also scored the pole-position at country radio giving the Capitol Records trio their second chart-topper after CMA Single of the Year “I Run To You.” 

Taylor Swift’s Fearless record continued to dominate the charts as well with Fearless moving up a notch on the Nielsen SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart to number 5 (good for second on the country charts) while her self-titled debut continues to be a remarkable success on the charts after over three years on the charts.  Now in its 160thweek on the charts, Taylor Swift has spent the longest amount of time in the Nielsen SoundScan Hot 200’s top 100 this decade (once the album drops out of the Top 100 for a couple of weeks it moves to the Top Catalog albums chart).  In fact, Taylor Swift will end 2009 as the best-selling artist in all genres, outside of the late Michael Jackson.   The Taylor Swift album has now sold over 4.4 million copies and should retain the title as the best-selling Taylor Swift album for two more weeks or so, when the one year old Fearless will take that distinction.

Tim McGraw didn’t score any CMA Awards but he did sing the title track to his Southern Voice album on the telecast.  That was good enough to keep Tim steady in the Top 20 of theNielsen SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart with his month-old album.  He’s now sold over 270,000 copies of the album while barely holding off CMA’s best performer of the night, the Zac Brown Band, who jump to 15 on the Hot 200 Albums chart (fifth on the Hot Country Albums tally) with The Foundation.  The album has now moved nearly 1.2 million copies in exactly one year on the charts. 

Note: Clicking on an album title will bring you to our album review for that album.

Darius Rucker jumped over 20 spots on last weeks Hot 200 Albums chart and he does nearly that this week as well as he returns to the Top 30 albums of the chart with his 61-week-old album Learn To Live.  CMA’s Best New Artist also performed (from the crowd) “Alright,” one of his #1 hits off of the record.  Following up her performance of “Dead Flowers” on the show, Miranda Lambert’s album experienced a sales increase from last week, even though it dropped one space on the charts (she can thank Darius for that one).  Next week the album should move past the 200,000 copies sold mark as it marches its way to the Gold status, a mark both of Miranda’s previous albums have achieved.  Jason Aldean is another gold-selling artist and with his status as a star on the rise, his album Wide Open lands the eighth spot on the Hot Country Albums chart this week and it will cross the 750,000 copies sold mark this coming week.  After the Hannah Montana soundtrack album is Sugarland’s latest release, the holiday album Gold & Green a record which will continue to rise up the charts this holiday season as both a gift for Sugarland fans and a great holiday album to purchase for all those holiday parties. 

Jamey Johnson’s That Lonesome Song may not have won the coveted Album of the Year award from the CMA folks (That went to Taylor Swift for Fearless) but the album did feature Jamey’s Song of the Year in “In Color.”  The album jumped 111 spots on this week’s Hot 200 Albums  chart to give Johnson the biggest mover this week.  The record sold nearly 15,000 more copies giving Jamey a total that is nearing 620,000 copies sold, which is remarkable for a record that didn’t feature but two Top 40 country singles and of those, only “In Color” made it to the Top 10.  Sugarland’s second album on this week’s chart-rundown is the thirteenth best-selling record of the week.  With multiple chart-topping hits and a healthy year-long chart run, Love On The Inside has moved over 1.8 million copies and before the holiday season is over, it will likely be near the double platinum mark in scanned units (it already is there according to the RIAA). 

As one of the few country artists to experience a sales decrease, Toby Keith probably isn’t too happy but with his follow-up single to the title from American Ride scoring with audiences, TK is likely to see that album get to near 300,000 copies sold before the year is over. Also, “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song)” is one of those songs that could net Toby CMA and ACM nominations in 2010 as it’s that good of a song. Rounding out the Top 15 on the Nielsen SoundScan Hot Country Albums chart is Keith Urban’s Defying Gravity. The artist didn’t take home any solo awards (he won for vocal collaboration with Brad Paisley for “Start A Band”) but he did perform on the telecast and that helped move his latest album for Capitol Nashville over the 630,000 albums sold mark.

Reba McEntire continues her comeback this week as her Starstruck Records/Valory Music Co. album held steady this week and while it dropped a notch on the Hot Country Albums chart to 16th place, Keep On Loving You does feature Reba’s latest Top 10 hit in “Consider Me Gone.” The single from the legendary star has a chance to be a #1 hit for her, most likely near the beginning of 2010.  Reba’s friends Brooks & Dunn follow her next with their swan-song album #1’s…And Then Some. The album moved up its current position on the charts, thanks to a performance of the hit single “Honky Tonk Stomp.”  Luke Bryan, like Toby Keith, didn’t have much to do with the Award show but his sophomore release has now sold over 120,000 copies as the artist prepares to follow label-mates Lady Antebellum to the pole position on the singles charts with “Do I,” the first single off of Doin’ My Thing.  Brad Paisley won Male vocalist of the Year from the Country Music Association for the fourth straight year and as the host, he also got the most screen time (with Carrie Underwood).  This helped bring American Saturday Night back into the Hot 100 of the SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart, where it moved a whopping 50 spots to 68th.  That was good enough to get Brad back in Country’s Top 20 as well, where he’s slightly ahead of one of the men he beat out for the Vocalist award in legend George Strait.  Twang moved 15 spots on the Hot 200 Albums chart this week while remaining in Country’s Top 20.

For this week’s interesting albums section of the chart rundown, we find the Now! That’s What I Call A Country Christmas album sitting at 80th on the Hot 200 Albums chart while it’s followed-up with Kenny Chesney’s Greatest Hits II.  That album should cross the 500,000 sales mark sometime during the holidays, giving the star but another Gold album.  Sugarland’s third album on this week’s tally is Live on the Inside.  The Walmart-only set has now moved nearly 200,000 copies in about ½ a year on the charts.  Sugarland’s labelmate Billy Currington performed his chart-topping and CMA-nominated hit “People Are Crazy” on the telecast and finds himself on the chart this week with his Little Bit of Everything having moved him over the 330,000 albums sold mark.  Big Kenny’s Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farm Boy quietly entered the Albums chart this week at 197th Place.  While the album sold nearly 3,000 copies, it still had to be a number Big Kenny didn’t want to see that low.  Still, as his single “Long After I’m Gone” continues to move up the charts, the album should continue to find its sales increase.