Kenny Chesney Tops SoundScan Charts with 'Hemingway's Whiskey'

For the second week in a row the top-selling album in the United States belongs to a country artist.  Kenny Chesney takes over the top slot on the Nielsen SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart with his latest BNA Records album Hemingway’s Whiskey selling over 183,000 copies the first week out.  The album features the two-week #1 hit single “Boys of Fall” and ensures 2011’s concert season will feature the superstar packing stadiums around the country after a quiet 2010.  The Zac Brown Band slides from #1 to #3 on the Hot 200 Albums chart while claiming country’s second slot with You Get What You Give finding another 70,000 homes giving the album a solid 223,000 plus homes in two weeks on the chart. Billy Currington’s new single “Let Me Down Easy” helps keep the two-week old Enjoy Yourself as the third place finisher on this week’s country tally with nearly 70,000 fans now owning the disc.  Jamey Johnson’s critically-acclaimed The Guitar Song is the fourth-best-seller this week as the double disc opus now has passed the 100k mark and actually is over 113,000 units sold. Rounding out the Top 5 country albums on the Nielsen SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart this week is this year’s second-best selling album in all genres, Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now.  Already on a fourth single with “Hello World,” there’s likely a good bet that the group will come out with a new album sometime in 2011 unless they go 6-7 singles deep on the album.

The Zac Brown Band’s second album on this tally is their break-through national debut The Foundation. The album has now sold nearly 2.3 million copies since being released in the fall of 2008.  The sixth-best-selling country album on the Nielsen SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart this week is Miranda Lambert’s Revolution which looks like a strong contender to hit the million-unit scanned mark sometime during the holiday shopping season.  Miranda is followed by the Now Country Volume 3  hits collection which, itself is followed on this week’s tally by Little Big Town.  Little Big Town has just announced “Kiss Goodbye”  as the follow-up to Top 10 radio hit “Little White Church.  Both songs are on The Reason Why, the band’s fourth album which is nearing the 100,000 sales mark.  Carrie Underwood returns to Country’s Top 10 best-selling albums this week as Play On found quite a few more homes to give the artist nearly 1.75 million copies sold since being released last fall. 

Trace Adkins falls out of the Top 10 country albums this week but he sits just outside at 11 as his Show Dog-Universal debut Cowboy’s Back In Town remains a steady selling album.  IT has now sold over 122,000 copies in a little over a month on the charts.  Taylor Swift’s Fearless continues its inevitable slide down the album sales chart as she ramps up to get Speak Now up the charts.  Jerrod Niemann’s Judge Jerrod and the Hung Jury rebounds back up the charts as his second single from the album, “What Do You Want” makes its way up the charts.  Blake Shelton’s  All About Tonight rebounded a bit on the charts as well with over 4,300 more fans taking home the six song album.  Shelton will release his first ever Greatest Hits album Loaded: The Best of Blake Shelton in November.  It features the two hits from the All About Tonight album along with every hit of his career except “I’ll Just Hold On.”  Brad Paisley round-out the best-selling 15 country albums this week with American Saturday Night now comfortably over the 650,000 sales mark. 

Eric Church’s Carolina climbs back into the Top 20 country albums on the SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart this week as he finds another 4100 plus homes digging his brand of country rock.  Jason Aldean is setting himself up to release My Kinda Party soon but he’s still finding fans copping their own copies of the previous album Wide Open. It’s approaching the 1.3 million sold mark and the album will likely eventually pass the 1.5 million mark sometime next year.  The Zac Brown Band’s third album on this tally – just like last week – is their live set Pass The Jar. The album has now sold over 140,000 copies.  Randy Houser’s sophomore album tumbled down the chart this week but with strong reviews and a new single, hopes should be high that it will eventually sell as much or more than his first album Anything Goes did (which is over 100,000 copies sold).  Eason Corbin is looking to find a way to eek out a second consecutive #1 hit with “Roll With It” as his album will past the quarter million sales mark this week.

Rhonda Vincent’s self-released album Taken found over 3,500 fans in its first week on the charts, which is a strong sales week for a Bluegrass-oriented album.  The album actually sold over one thousand pre-orders which gives the bluegrass star nearly 5,000 copies sold to date.  Luke Bryan may have tumbled from the Top 20 on the charts but there’s no doubting that his Gold-certified  sophomore release Doin’ My Thing will continue to find homes as we near the holiday shopping season.  Joey+ Rory’s fantastic Album Number Two has now sold nearly 15,000 copies in three weeks, a very strong number for a duo without any radio exposure this time around.  Dierks Bentley’s Up On The Ridge continues to find fans as the country star’s gamble paid off as he has gotten the best reviews of his career and CMA Album of the Year nomination along with a vocal event  nomination with Jamey Johnson and Miranda Lambert for the tune “Bad Angel.” Josh Turner’s Haywire rounds-out the rundown this week with the album nearing the 320,000 sales mark as he moves from his Top 3 single “All Over Me” to the fantastic cover of the Don Williams hit “I Wouldn’t Be A Man.”

Next week Katie Armiger and Toby Keith will enter the albums sales chart with Keith possibly out pacing Kenny and the Zac Brown Band. As always check back here next Wednesday to find out how they did.