Country Album Chart News For April 3, 2013: Blake Shelton's "Story" Debuts At #1; Alan Jackson "Memories" #2

Blake Shelton Sells nearly 200,000 copies of “Based On A True Story.” Debuts at #1 on SoundScan’s Top 10 Country Albums chart. Alan Jackson #2 with “Precious Memories II”

In any normal week, Blake Shelton’s 200,000 albums sold would be enough to get him the #1 slot in all-genres but this isn’t a normal week with last week’s Justin Timberlake album The 20/20 Experience moving nearly 1,000,000 copies. While he dropped 67% from last week, he still sold anothe 318,000 and was followed by Lil’ Wayne’s latest album with 217,000 giving Blake the #3 all-genre start. With nearly 56,000 copies sold, Alan Jackson’s Precious Memories debuts at #2 on the Sound Scan Top 10 Country Albums chart. Of Alan’s 56,000 sold, only 7,000 of them were digital albums. Luke Bryan’s Spring Break...Here To Party has sold nearly 300k and now sits at #3 after four weeks on the chart. Right behind him at #4 is Thompson Square with Just Feels Good. The duo sold a respectable 36,000 copies in their first week on the chart. Rounding out the Top 5 is Taylor Swift’s Red. An album which is spawning hits on both Country & Pop charts thus giving her the most buzzed-about album and one which is likely to become one of her all-time best-selling recordings.

Here’s To The Good Time, Changed Certified Gold for Florida Georgia Line and Rascal Flatts, respectively

The accolades just keep on coming for up and coming duo Florida Georgia Line as their debut album for Big Loud Mountain/Repbulic Nashville was certified GOld while also experiencing a sales increase of 15% thanks to Easter gift buying sales. Last week’s #1 on the SoundScan Top 10 is Kacey Musgraves’ Same Trailer Different Park has now sold 61,000 in two weeks. Luke Bryan’s Tailgates & Tanlines scores a 90% sales increase and now has moved 1.922 million copies. The 9th best-selling Country album this week is Hunter Hayes soon-to-be-expanded self-titled debut for Atlantic Records. The album gained a 65% sales increase over last week with sales now at 712,000. Eric Church’s Chief moves down a few spots on the chart this week but remains in the Top 10 with a 63% sales spike oif his own.

Walmart Exclusive ACM  Zine Pak CD/Magazine debuts at #11; Maggie Rose Cut To Impress Debuts as well.

The latest Walmart exclusive, ZinePak, the fourth annual ACM Awards preview magazine and CD found over 15,000 fans this week to be this week’s #11 best-selling Country Album. Carrie Underwood’s “Blown Away” is next on our rundown with 22% sales increas while Lee Brice’s Hard 2 Love scores a notable inclusion this week as he rolls near the Top of the Airplay chart for a fourth time with “I Drive Your Truck.” Rascal Flatts surapsses the Gold-sales mark (not just shipped sales) with Changed. They’ve now had each and every album of theirs surpass Gold, Platinum or multi-platinum (this happens exactly a year after the album was released). Finally, RPM Entertainment newcomer Maggie Rose’s Cut To Impress debuts with 2,000 copies sold (not enough for a SoundScan Top 200 placement but noteworthy nonetheless.

Other debuts on the Country Album Chart this week include Black Lillies and Redneck Social Club both scoring 1000 copies sold in their debut weeks.

Next week will see the debut release of Pioneer from The Band Perry and Right On Time from Gretchen Wilson. Brad Paisley follows the follows with Wheelhouse on April 9.

Top 10 Country Albums for This Week with five Notable Albums (SoundScan Top 200 Current Albums Chart Placement)*

*Numbers rounded to nearest thousandth.