When Ronnie Dunn moved on from Brooks and Dunn to start his solo career, there were many who wondered how successful he might be.  Well, with “Bleed Red” a Top 10 hit, Ronnie Dunn seems to have refreshed himself and given radio a familiar voice singing a fresh sounding set of songs as his self-titled debut album landed at #5 in the all-genre SoundScan Top 200 Current Albums chart this week with over 45,000 copies sold. That was nearly 5,000 more copies sold than Jason Aldean’s My Kinda Party and that was enough to give Ronnie Dunn his first #1 as a solo artist.  Aldean, thanks to the CMT Music Awards and the CMA Music Festival in Nashville last weekend, remains at #2 on the Top Current Country Albums chart this week. He’s now sold over 1.3 million copies as “Dirt Road Anthem” helps propel him further into superstar status.  Brad Paisley’s This Is Country Music, the previous two-week’s #1 country album slides a little this week as he now has sold nearly a quarter million country albums over the last three weeks.  Randy Travis duets collection, Anniversary Celebration, debuts at #19 on the all-genre chart and at #4 on the country chart this week. He’s releasing the single “Everything and All” (Which features Brad Paisley and appears as a solo track on the CD) to country radio soon.  Rounding out the Top 5 this week is the nearly platinum You Get What You Give from country music’s most critically-praised band, the Zac Brown Band. 

Taylor Swift, fresh off a Video of the Year win at the CMT Music Awards finds herself sitting at #6 on the Top Current Country Albums chart provided by SoundScan this week.  She’s now sold nearly 3.5 million copies of the album as she’s also approaching platinum sales status for “Mean,” the latest and most well-received single to date.  The Band Perry’s self-titled album sits next and has now scanned nearly 600,000 copies as “You Lie” looks close to giving the family trio a second consecutive chart-topping single.  Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now may not be giving the trio any new hits but it’s still racking up the sales and now sits at 3.53 million copies sold as Rascal Flatts and Alison Krauss round out the Top 10 album sales, giving half of the Top 10 country albums this week to bands. 

Kenny Chesney’s Hemingway’s Whiskey leads off the #11-15 section of the Top Current Country Albums chart this week.  He’s now sold nearly 840,000 copies while Blake Shelton sits right behind him with Loaded…The Best of Blake Shelton having scanned nearly 300,000 copies as Blake gets ready to drop Red River Blue in early July (we think he’ll sell around 200k of that album the first week out, largely due to The Voice and his growing media profile).  Sara Evans Stronger is next with nearly 215,000 copies scanned since being released earlier this year. It’ll be interesting to see how her cover of Rod Stewart’s 80s pop gem “My Heart Can’t Tell You No.”  Zac Brown Band’s second album on our rundown this week (of three) has now sold over 2.635 million copies while Colt Ford’s Every Chance I Get is looking like a strong bet to end up selling around what his debut Ride Through The Country has sold. 

Miranda Lambert’s Revolution rounds out the #16-20 portion of our chart rundown this week and while it looks like the Pistol Annies will be releasing a single, Miranda is looking ready to move onto a new album herself.  She’s now sold 1.33 million copies of Revolution, her best-selling album to date.  Sugarland’s The Incredible Machine scanned past the one million copy mark this week while “Tonight” continues to move up the charts.  The duo is followed by Aaron Lewis.  His R&J Records album Town Line now has sold nearly 165,000 copies.  Tim McGraw’s Number One Hits, which may or may not be his final Curb Records album as an active artist on the label, has now sold over 372,000 copies while Thompson Square, who experienced a huge fan sing-a-long during their short CMA Music Festival set, have now sold over 180,000 copies of their Self-titled album while “I Got You” hits the Top 30 in just 5 weeks on the charts. 

Our interesting albums section begins with Tiger Army’s Nick 13 and his self-titled collection of retro country tunes.  Nick 13 is followed-up by Billy Currington’s Enjoy Yourself.  Keith Urban has the CMT Awards to thank for a massive rebound on the SoundScan Top 200 Current Albums chart this week and he’s now oh, so close to having scanned 600,000 copies of “Get Closer.”  Brantley Gilbert may be on a new album but his previous album contains the Top 40 hit “Country Must Be Country Wide” and fans are finding their way to Halfway To Heaven and have now gotten the album to nearly 120,000 copies sold. Zac Brown Band’s Pass The Jar (now officially a Gold-selling recording/live album), rounds out our chart this week and has now sold over 255,000 copies since being released to market.

With no real big releases to chart next week (except fringe artist Marc Broussard), we’ll see how these chart #s round out for next week.  As always check back with us to see where the chips fall.