Chart News for December 14, 2011: Scotty Back At #1; ACA's Help Sales

ACA’s Aldean’s “Party” While Toby Keith Rides “Red Solo Cup” Wave

Lady Antebellum’s Own The Night continues its march towards platinum with the album about 41,000 copies away from that mark (which likely will happen this week). Jason Aldean, who won 5 ACA Awards this year to cap off the best year of his career, moved another 34,000 copies of My Kinda Party To find the album at 2111,000 scanned as “Tattoos On This Town” looks to hit #1 at some point in early 2012. With 31,000 copies sold, Toby Keith’s seven-week-old album Clancy’s Tavern returned to round out this week’s Top 5 and thanks to the viral smash “Red Solo Cup” (Watch the Holiday video of the song here), Toby Keith’s got his biggest buzz worthy album since a decade ago when How Do You Like Me Now made him a bonafide superstar.

Top 5 Country Albums for the Week of December 14, 2011

LW	TW	Artist	Album	Sales TW	Sales Total
11	13	Scotty McCreery	Clear As Day	52,000	682,000
10	15	Lady Anthebellum	Own The Night	51,000	959,000
26	24	Jason Aldean	My Kinda Party	34,000	2,111,000
17	27	Taylor Swift	Speak Now: World Tour	33,000	145,000
35	29	Toby Keith	Clancy's Tavern	31,000	227,000

The Band Perry’s Platinum Dream

Taylor Swift’s Speak Now is nearing the 4x Platinum mark (it’s only 175,000 in sales away) and will hit that sometime next year before her fourth studio album hits retail in summer/fall 2012. The Band Perry’s self-titled debut also is approaching a sales milestone. It’s already certified Platinum by the RIAA but the album is very close to scanning the number and is less than 40,000 copies away from doing so (it will get there before the shopping season ends). The record features four hits including “Hip To My Heart,” “You Lie,” “All Your Life” and the juggernaut, best-selling country single of 2011: “If I Die Young.” Luke Bryan’s Tailgates & Tanlines is already his best-selling album with nearly 600,000 copies sold and it appears that he’ll continue to have great numbers like this as he gets a couple of singles deeper into the only months old record which features “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)” and “I Don’t Want This Night To End.” Miranda Lambert’s Four The Record has hit the 280,000 sales mark in just six weeks on the charts. Her follow-up single to “Baggage Claim” is “Over You,” a song she co-wrote with Blake about his late brother. The Zac Brown Band return to the Top 10 this week with You Get What You Give. The record joins their first record The Foundation in scoring the band their fourth #1 hit. The album’s hits are “As She’s Walking Away,” “Colder Weather,” “Knee Deep” and “Keep Me In Mind,” which hit the top spot this week.

Top 10 Country Albums for the Week of December 14, 2011

LW	TW	Artist	Album	Sales TW	Sales Total
31	33	Taylor Swift	Speak Now	27,000	3,825,000
30	34	The Band Perry	The Band Perry	27,000	963,000
32	35	Luke Bryan	Tailgates & Tanlines	26,000	542,000
39	40	Miranda Lambert	Four The Record	23,000	280,000
68	61	Zac Brown Band	You Get What You Give	15,000	1,298,000

Pistol Annies Ride ACA Performance Wave To 76% Sales Increase

Miranda Lambert’s band the Pistol Annies have become one of country music’s biggest buzz bands this year, all of this without scoring a hit on the radio dial. The trio which also features Angaleena Presley and Ashley Monroe, performed on the ACA Awards last week and that translated into 13,000 more albums sold to bring their tally to nearly 190,000. Blake Shelton’s Red River Blue is less than 50,000 copies away from scanning Gold while Eric Church’s Chief is only 15,000 away. Martina McBride’s Eleven has two Top 20 hits and “I’m Gonna Love You Through It” will soon give her her 20th Top 10 hit (she has a few other songs that hit #11 on the radio charts). Kenny Chesney’s Hemingway’s Whiskey rounds out our rundown of interesting albums this week with the record now scanning past the Platinum (one million) sales mark.

Five Interesting Country Albums for the Week of December 14, 2011

LW	TW	Artist	Album	Sales TW	Sales Total
63	62	Blake Shelton	Red River Blue	14,000	455,000
62	63	Eric Church	chief	14,000	485,000
87	67	Pistol Annies	Hell On Heels	13,000	189,000
113	115	Martina McBride	Eleven	7,000	110,000
143	134	Kenny Chesney	Hemingway's Whiskey	6,000	1,004,000

More interesting information for the week of December 14, 2011

Lauren Alaina's Wildflower has sold 183,000 copies while her second single "Georgia Peaches" hits the Top 40 this week.
Tim McGraw is only 5,000 copies away from seeing Number One Hits scan Platinum (500k for 2disc sets, each disc counts as a sale).
Jake Owen’s Barefoot Blue Jean Night has now sold nearly 170,000
Sara Evans Stronger album has now sold over 330,000 and has an outside shot at Gold
Eli Young Band’s Life At Best gains momentum thanks to an ACA performance. They've now sold 134,000 copies of the record which features the #1 single of the year "Crazy Girl" (a Platinum single) and future hit "Even If It Breaks Your Heart."
Hunter Hayes re-enters the Top 200 Current Albums Chart and has now sold 50,000 while “Storm Warning” breaks the Top 20 for the up-and-coming star.
Thompson Square’s self-titled debut re-enters SoundScan chart at #200. They’ve now sold nearly 250,000 copies of the record with hits “I Got You” and #1 hit “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not.”