Chart news: Kenny Chesney Jumps Into Top 15

While the ACM Awards weren’t until Sunday and thus the sales increases from the show won’t be felt until next-week’s chart, there still must’ve been a few pre-award show sales out there as quite a few country artists experienced nice sales gains this week, including Lady Antebellum and their nearly double platinum album Need You Now moving back up the charts for another Top 3 finish on the Nielsen SoundScan charts.  The Zac Brown Band’s remarkable album The Foundation, with four chart-toppin’ hits and one more to follow in new single “Free” is the second-best selling country album of the week, matching their previous best. It’s amazing that their album is nearing the double platinum mark without ever topping the country charts.  Alan Jackson’s “Freight Train drops down one rung on the Top 15 Country Albums this week but it still has surpassed the 100k scanned mark as Alan puts on his Hard Hat and starts Hammering away at the charts with his new single “Hard Hat and a Hammer.” Taylor Swift’s next single “Change,” is her sixth single from “Fearless” but the album has sold nearly 6 million copies and was followed-up by Broadway star Laura Bell Bundy’s debut album Achin’ & Shakin’.  The album debuts in the SoundScan Top 5 country albums this week with nearly 15,000 fans Giddy to have picked up the album.

Miranda Lambert’s album experienced a sales increase last week but we suspect next week’s numbers will be remarkable as she walked away with the coveted Album of the Year award at the ACM Awards and beat out, to the shock of many, Taylor and Carrie and Reba for the Female Vocalist of the Year award.  Miranda’s stunning performance of “The House That Built Me” has her career in high-octane mode while Carrie Underwood picked up the partially fan voted Entertainer of the Year award, the first time a female artist has gotten it two years in a row.  She now has moved nearly 1.5 million copies of “Play On” as she works her summer single “Undo It.”  Easton Corbin will continue to “Roll With It as his self-titled album inches near the 125,000 copies sold mark.  Jason Aldean is hot on Easton’s heels with his Wide Open album and his current hit single “Crazy Town.”  Blake Shelton, who won the Vocal Event of the Year with Trace Adkins for “Hillbilly Bone” has sold nearly 175,000 copies of the SixPak album and he will likely see it move even more units next week thanks to that award.

Lady A’s self-titled debut is this week’s 11th best-selling country album and it has moved a remarkable 1.6 million copies in the two years it’s been on the charts.  Right behind the award-winning trio is Gary Allan with his Get off On The Pain. The title tune is his current single and it’s already Top 40 at Country radio while Kenny Chesney’s Greatest Hits II finally experienced a major sales increase jumping back into the Top 15 (13th) on the SoundScan country albums chart.  The superstar is inching towards the 650,000 mark for the album that now includes his latest single “Ain’t Back Yet.”  Josh Turner’s Haywire continues to move towards the 250,000 sales mark while Luke Bryan, who stunned many by taking home the Best New Artist award this past Sunday (while also appearing on the Celebrity Apprentice) has crossed the 300,000 scanned mark on his way to a gold record.

This weeks’ interesting albums round-up includes Chris Young’s Man I Want To Be moving near the 275,000 copies sold mark as the title track looks to be a future #1 single.  Reba’s Keeo On Loving You is now officially a gold record and the title tune looks to be another solid Top 10 hit for the country diva while Danny Gokey continues to march up the charts with “My Best Days Are Ahead of Me” while his album My Best Days inches past the 130,000 mark.  Justin Moore has himself his second Top 10 hit with “Backwoods and his album is still selling at a nice pace and it has moved nearly 230,000 copies while Brad Paisley jumps back up the charts with American Saturday Night.  The album, which features “Water,” is now over the 525,000 albums sold mark.

Next week we’ll see new albums from Merle, Willie and Colt Ford appear on the charts and we may also see Whitney Duncan’s Right Road Now album jump on the charts as well.  Check back next week to find out how the charts shake out.