Outlaws Like Justin Moore Make Him Number One

At the surprise of virtually everyone outside of perhaps his record label and his biggest fans, Justin Moore scored a Top 5 debut on the SoundScan Hot 200 Current Albums chart this week with Outlaws Like Me. Lead single “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away” certainly helped the album be this week’s best-selling country album with over 65,000 copies finding their way into the hands of the people. The traditionalist kept country metal star Jason Aldean from gaining his eleventh week as the top-selling country album. Aldean, for his part, sold over 39,000 copies of My Kinda Party to push the album past the 1.4 million scanned mark. Brad Paisley’s This Is Country Music passed the 300,000 copies scanned mark this week with “Remind Me” moving even further up the charts and ensuring that this album gets five or six singles before Brad moves on to his follow-up album about a year from now. NOW THIS IS COUNTRY MUSIC – Volume IV lands down a slot this week to #4. The playlist-like album of recent big star hits (which is pure profit for labels) has now sold 45,000 copies in two weeks on the charts. Zac Brown Band’s You Get What You Give officially scanned Platinum this week and they’ve now sold over 1.009 million copies of the likely CMA “Album of the Year” contender (Aldean and more likely Paisley will make this list too).

Taylor Swift still remains in the Top 25 of the SoundScan Hot 200 Current Albums chart with Speak Now and she too scored a milestone this week. In addition to scanning past the 3.5 million mark (now less than 50,000 away from passing Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now as the best-selling country album released in 2010), Taylor also scored her third consecutive #1 hit on the Country Aircheck/Mediabase radio chart this week with “Mean”. She’ll look to continue this trend with “Sparks Fly.” Ronnie Dunn has the Seventh best-selling country album this week with his fantastic self-titled album. After scoring a Top 10 hit with “Bleed Red,” “Cost Of Livin’” is already Top 40 as it debuts there this week, another remarkable achievement for an artist who was lucky to score such widespread acclaim the last 3 years or so with Brooks & Dunn.  The Band Perry continue to sell 11,000-plus copies of their self-titled debut as “You Lie” looks like it’ll peak in the Top 5. Chances are “All Your Life” will be the fourth (and likely final) single from the album. Lady Antebellum’s already working on their upcoming album Own The Night but fans are still taking a shine to “Need You Now” (with “Hello World” still on the AC radio chart). Lady A has now sold over 3.55 million copies of the record while Rascal Flatts finishes out the Top 10 country albums on SoundScan’s Top 200 Current Albums chart this week with another 9,000 fans taking a copy of the album home. 

Blake Shelton’s Loaded…The Best of Blake Shleton sits next and with it remaining the #1 album at iTunes since Friday, it’s very likely that the album will rise up the charts before Red River Blue breaks open with a huge first week of sales, giving Blake his second #1 new album in a row (after last summer’s “All About Tonight” hit #1. The lead single from Red River Blue, “Honey Bee” is shaping up to be one of 2011’s most-played singles -  if not the most played single -  and it scores the top slot on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart for the third consecutive week (This is the competing chart that hasn’t had a Taylor Swift #1 yet). Kenny Chesney’s Hemingway’s Whiskey should be in consideration for CMA Awards Album of the year with three #1 singles (“Somewhere With You,” “The Boys of Fall” and “Live A Little”) and a likely fourth one in “You And Tequila.” The latter song, the current single, features Grace Potter and in most years would be a shoo-in for Best collaboration but given how Brad Paisley has a few of his own (including the all but guaranteed nominee “Old Alabama”) and others like “Don’t You Wanna Stay”, etc., it’s possible this song will be overlooked. Still, Hemingway’s Whiskey has sold nearly 860,000 albums since being released last fall. Former Cross Canadian Ragweed front man Cody Canada and bassist Jeremy Plato joined with a few other big “Red Dirt” artists (Including guitarist/vocalist Seth James) to create Cody Canada & The Departed and they score a Top 15 Top Country Albums chart debut with This Is Indian Land, a strong collection of songs released on the Underground Sound/Apex Nashville label. Zac Brown Band’s The Foundation is next while Sara Evans’ Stronger rounds out the Top 15 this week.

Alison Krauss & Union Station’s Paper Airplane has sold nearly 300,000 copies since being released earlier this year while indie country star Corey Smith lands in the Top 100 of the SoundScan Top 200 Current Albums chart for the first time and that’s good enough to land at #17 on the Top 20 Current Country Albums chart. Corey’s label partner and good friend Colt Ford is next with Every Chance I Get. The star country talker has sold nearly 70,000 copies of the record since being released in early May. Aaron Lewis’s Town Line is next with 175,000 copies now in the hands of fans everywhere. Sugarland rounds out the Top 20 with the platinum The Incredible Machine.

Sarah Jarosz is next with Follow Me Down making a re-appearance on the charts this week. She now replaces Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers as the second-best selling bluegrass album this week behind the AK&US juggernaut.  Sarah has now sold nearly 20,000 copies, which is practically “Gold” in the bluegrass world. Thompson Square are next with their Self-titled debut which has now sold nearly 190,000 copies with the duo’s “I Got You” now Top 25 after just seven weeks on the charts. It looks like they’re fast becoming one of the biggest duos in country music. Dave Alvin’s Eleven Eleven is next with nearly 3700 fans taking the record home its first week on the charts. Brantley Gilbert continues to experience success with his Top 30 hit “Country Must Be Country Wide” and the album with the original version continues to find audiences with the record now nearing the 130,000 sales mark.  Keith Urban rounds out our rundown this week with Get Closer having now sold over 604,000 copies.

Next week will see the arrival of Dolly Parton’s new Better Day album. Check back here to see how that album and other noteworthy releases land!