Aldean Remains #1 on Album Charts this week

Sara Evans eclipses the 100,000 mark this week as Stronger looks to be a strong return to form for the songbird.  Sugarland gains 19% sales increase over last week (the album was for sale digitally for $3.99 at Amazon last week) and that makes The Incredible Machine now over the 925,000 copies scanned.  Aaron Lewis is next with Town Line now having moved 92,000 copies and it is a good bet to scan past the 100k mark. Miranda Lambert’s Revolution gained 39% over last week and has now sold over 1.25 million albums.  Thompson Square’s self-titled album gained 6% over last week and has now moved over 119,000 copies.  They conclude this week’s Top 10 best-selling country albums on the SoundScan Top 200 Albums chart.

The Band Perry sits next with an 8% sales increase over last week and has now sold over 475,000 copies of their self-titled album (which is certified gold).  Kenny Chesney’s Hemingway’s Whiskey has now sold 768,000 copies while “Live A Little” races up the charts.  Zac Brown Band’s The Foundation gained 28% in sales over last week and returns to the Top 15 with sales strongly heading towards the 2.6 million copies scanned mark, which isn’t bad for the oldest country album on this chart – and one which is at least a year past having a current single on the charts.  Tim McGraw’s Number One Hits slides up one place on the charts this week while also experiencing a sales decrease this week; the album has now scanned 315,000 copies.  Kenny Rogers’ Cracker Barrel-exclusive The Love Of God has now scanned 42,000 copies in three weeks on the charts and rounds out the Top 15 this week.

Billy Currington’s Enjoy Yourself gained a slight 4% sales increase over last week while “Let Me Down Easy” slid into the pole position at Radio.  The record is now inching ever so closely to the 300k sold mark.  Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers’ Rare Bird Alert remains the best-selling bluegrass album of the week (but will be passed in a few weeks by Alison Krauss & Union Station). It has sold 25,764 in three weeks.  Brad Paisley’s Hits Alive gained a 62% sales increase over last week and has now sold over 235,000 copies meaning that Brad is oh-so-close to a Gold-scanning collection.  Blake Shelton’s Loaded…The Best of Blake Shelton is next with 217,000 scanned.  The Various Artist Magazine/46^th Annual ACM AWARDs Zine Pak 2 disc collection sold another 5,000 copies giving it over 10,000 in circulation in just one week.  That album rounds out the Top 20 selling country albums on the SoundScan Top 200 Albums Sales chart this week.

Our interesting album section includes four newer artists and two superstars.  Sitting at 111 on the SoundScan chart is Jerrod Niemann with his Judge Jerrod and the Hung Jury album.  The album scored a 7% sales increase over last week while the versatile vocalist has now sold over 280,000 copies of the record.  Keith Urban’s Get Closer is next at 124 on the chart this week as “Without You” slings itself up the charts as the album slides past the 560,000 sales mark.  Eric Church’s Carolina has now sold over 433,000 copies while sitting at 137 on the SoundScan chart this week.  Easton Corbin’s Easton Corbin debut album moved 14% more copies over last week with “I Can’t Love You Back” still rising up the charts.  The album has now sold 353,000 copies in basically a year on the charts.  Carrie Underwood’s Play On re-enters the Top 200 albums chart at 152 ths week thanks to a 57% sales increase over last week.  The superstar’s album is now oh-so-close to a double-platinum scanning album and sometime this year it is bound to eclipse that mark, even as Carrie sets to release a new song from a new album at some point.

On the radio singles chart we find the Zac Brown Band overtaking Thompson Square to score another #1 hit with “Colder Weather.”  The multi-talented group has now scored a #1 with each and every one of their singles, be it the Billboard or Aircheck Chart.  Luke Bryan scores the most-added and ‘breaker’ awards this week as his “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)” runs up into the Top 30 in just 3 weeks.

Well friends, there you have it.  The best-selling albums and highest-charting singles of the week.  Check back here next week to see where the chips fall with a full week of ACM Awards-impacted sales included in the chart data.  Also, it'll be interesting to see where Craig Campbell will fall and to see if he can score a Top 10 or Top 20 country chart debut with Craig Campbell.