After a few weeks in which not much seemingly was selling, Mother’s Day proved to be a boon once again as CDs remain affordable gifts to give Mom’s everywhere.  Virtually every album on the Nielsen SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart scored positive increases and albums from Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood and Reba McEntire experienced the greatest gains this week.  Need You Now from Lady Antebellum scored the top slot this week with nearly another 100k sold and it’s officially a double platinum album as more than 2 million fans now actually own the album.  The Court Yard Hounds debuted as the second country music album on the charts this week with their self-titled Columbia Records debut.  The duo is Emily Robison and Martie Maguire, the sisters from the Dixie Chicks.  Zac Brown Band’s first live album, the fantastic double album/DVD combo pack debuted as the third best-selling country album this week and it’s immediately followed up by their The Foundation album, a record nearing the 2-million copies scanned mark.   Newly engaged Miranda Lambert’s third album Revolution gained 27% in sales over last week and is nearing the 600,000 albums scanned mark.

Carrie Underwood’s album moved 32% more albums than the previous week yet it slipped from the Country Top five on NielsenSoundScan’s chart to the sixth spot.  Still she’s moved over the 1.5 million albums sold mark as third single “Undo It” races up the charts. Taylor Swift is next and she too experienced a slight ssales bump as 16,000 more fans found her their favorite Fearless performer.  The album is nearing the 6 million sold mark.  The debut album from Lady Antebellum continues to sell briskly and is basically doing what Taylor’s debut did after Fearless came out. That is it remained a solid seller and is country’s seventh best-seller this week.  The Crazy Heart soundtrack album is next and it found another 11,000 homes while Alan Jackson rounds out the Top 10 best-selling country albums this week as Freight Train found 10,000 more homes and has moved nearly 150,000 copies so far. 

This week we’re gonna break down the second ten best-sellers from our favorite genre as well as give you five other interesting albums.  Willie Nelson has now shared some origins style country music with nearly 40,000 fans while the world remains Wide Open for Jason Aldean as he works his fourth consecutive Top 10 single from the album.  He’s sold nearly 1.2 million copies of the album thus far.  Mary Chapin Carpenter’s Age of Miracles found 8,000 more fans, which is almost exactly what Laura Bell Bundy did as well with her debut Achin’ and Shakin.’  Colt Ford’s Chicken & Biscuits lands at 15 this week with his three-week sales sitting at over 32,000 copies scanned. 

Luke Bryan’s Doin’ My Thing sits at 16th place this week with over 7500 more fans understanding that “Rain” is indeed “a good thing” for the lives of many but too much of it and it can cause problems like we had in Nashville a week ago.  Josh Turner’s Haywire is nearing the 250,000 albums-sold mark as he sends “All Over Me” up the charts.  Reba McEntire’s title track to her Keep On Loving You album looks primed to help the record get over the Gold (500k) albums scanned mark in the next couple of weeks as she sits at 489,000 this week.  Kenny Chesney’s nearing the Top spot on the charts with “Ain’t Back Yet” from Greatest Hits II, a slot that his Sony Music label mate Chris Young has on the Billboard chart this week with his The Man I Want To Be single.  This gives Young, who’s close to 300,000 albums sold, two consecutive #1s in a row a feat that he has achieved after his first album and previous single “Voices” didn’t get passed the Top 30. 

Tim McGraw’s Southern Voice continues to sell briskly and it starts off our interesting albums section of this week’s run-down as tim’s current single “Still” runs up the charts.  Tim’s already in the studio working on his follow-up album (and likely last one for Curb Records) but with the labels history, Southern Voice could have anywhere from none to five more singles coming from it with an 4^th Greatest Hits project in between the release of the next album and Voice.   Gary Allan’s  Get Off On The Pain experienced a nice sales boost, thanks to Mother’s Day and the fact that the title track is his fastest moving single in years.  After not appearing on our rundown last week, Danny Gokey’s back at 115 on the Nielsen SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart looksie this week as we find My Best Days  comfortably nudging its way near the 150,000 albums-sold mark as the single glides into the Top 30 at radio.  Keith Urban’s latest single “I’m In” is the fifth and possibly last single from Defying Gravity and I’m sure KU is hoping it can help him jump the Platinum mark as the album sits over 830,000 albums sold this week.  Rounding up this week’s chart news is the latest album from Chely Wright.  With the ‘juicy’ news that revealed her sexuality last week, one might have expected it to debut higher but the album did right about what many would’ve expected it to do as it sold nearly 3,400 albums. 

Next week we’ll see a few EPs from the Country Throwdown Tour artists arrive on the charts while Matt Kennon’s debut album gets a release as well.