Last July 2010 Album Sales Chart Still the Domain of Lady Antebellum

After a few weeks of selling less copies than the previous weeks, Lady Antebellum’s juggernaut Need You Now not only moves up on the SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart this week but it also sold 11% more than the week before finding a little over 27,000 more homes.  Following Lady Antebellum on the charts this week is the same cast of characters in the Top 10 best-selling country albums.  Jerrod Niemann, who sits at #1 on this week’s Hot Country Singles chart with “Lover, Lover,” has the third best-selling country album this week with Judge Jerrod and the Hung Jury.  In three weeks it has sold over 65,000 copies.  Miranda Lambert’s Revolution is mext and it has passed the 750,000 copies-scanned mark while Carrie Underwood’s Play On rounds out the Top 10 after a week at the top of the charts with “Undo It.” Her next single “Mama’s Song” has already been announced. 

Taylor Swift’s Fearless will soon be usurped by another single but that didn’t stop nearly 8,500 fans from picking it up to make it the sixth best-selling country album on this week’s SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart .  Dierks Bentley continues to sell well as Up On The Ridge found nearly 8,000 more fans this week.  Dierks has sold nearly 120,000 copies of his roots music project.  Jaron and the Long Road to Love sit next with Getting Dressed In The Dark.  In six weeks he’s sold 73,000 copies.  Easton Corbin’s self-titled debut album slides back into the Top 10 country albums this week as the record found nearly 5,500 more fans as “Roll With It” rolls its way near the Top 10.  Luke Bryan is next with Doin’ My Thing. The album has now officially sold over 400,000 copies. 

Brad Paisley opens up the 11-15 section on this week’s top selling country albums.  American Saturday Night sits at 85 on the Nielsen SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart and found nearly 5,300 more homes.  The next single from the album “Anything Like Me” will also be Brad Paisley’s first single from a special hits package to be released this fall.  Brooks & Dunn has now sold over 404,000 copies of their swansong album #1’s & Then Some.  Zac Brown Band’s live 2 disc/dvd opus Pass The Jar has moved past the 105,000 sales mark while Lady Antebellum’s remarkably resilient eponymous debut album found nearly 4,800 fans this week (most of them likely having heard “I Run To You” on pop/adult contemporary radio).  Jason Aldean – who just released a new single from his upcoming album today – sits at 15 this week on the album chart rundown with Wide Open sitting over the 1.250 sales mark.

This week’s interesting albums section of the SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart rundown starts with the re-entry of Craig Morgan’s nearly two-year old album That’s Why.  The album, which has two Top 10 hits (and nearly a third in “This Ain’t Nothin’”), was re-issued last week as a special Collector’s Edition exclusively through Cracker Barrel stores and that has helped the album crack the 40,000 sales mark for the first time.  This is very interesting as it seems to be a very good reason why his label has re-issued the album three times now.   Perhaps his sophomore release for Sony Nashville will sell many, many more copies because even though Craig Morgan has typically been a ‘single’ artist in terms of sales, 44,000 copies of an album with 3 hits is a remarkably low number.  If you juxtapose Morgan’s numbers with Colt Ford’s Chicken & Biscuits, you’ll see that Colt Ford has sold nearly double the amount of albums as Craig Morgan – without the benefit of a Top 10 radio hit.  Lee Brice – who sits in the Top 10 on his 50th week on the charts for “Love Like Crazy,” the title track to his debut Curb Records release – Now has sold over 43,000 copies.  Keith Urban’s Defying Gravity benefits from the success of “I’m In” as it found nearly 3,500 fans.  Rodney Atkins It’s America finally re-enters the charts this week at 200 on the SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart and now has sold nearly 130,000 copies in just over a year on the charts (but re-issued a month or so ago).   

With no new releases of note this week, next week’s chart rundown will likely be similar.  But, just in case there are some interesting things we invite you to return here to find out how things shake out.