November has been a great month (like it usually is) for the music industry as it brings with it award shows and Black Friday (in the USA).  With so many people on tight budgets, music has become an even better gift to get these days and Country music, which still has more fans buying physical product than digital singles, benefitted greatly and as a genre, it had all but one of its top 20 albums within the Nielsen SoundScan Hot 200 Albums.  After three weeks of leading the country pack, Carrie Underwood’s Play On has conceded the Country pole position to Taylor Swift’s Fearless.  While fans of both artists like to create some sort of rivalry between the two, there really isn’t any need for such things as both artists are quite friendly with each other.  Following-up those two is the self-titled debut album for Lady Antebellum.  Tim McGraw’s Southern Voice once again is the fourth-best selling country CD (25th overall) while Sugarland’s holiday album Gold and Green continues to rise up the charts and now has sold over 110,000 copies in its month on the charts.

Zac Brown Band, who are undoubtedly one of America’s most talented bands, have continued to sell many copies of The Foundation and the album is now over the 1.25 million albums sold mark while Taylor Swift’s resilient self-titled debut continues to be a favorite of fans and has sold over 4.45 million copies but was surpassed this week as Taylor’s best-selling album for Fearless has now sold over 4.51 million copies.  Jason Aldean’s world continues to be Wide Open as he seeks “The Truth” for his fans.  The album is nearing 800,000 copies sold while that pesky Hannah Montana Movie Soundtrack continues to sell well and is now nearing 1.75 million copies sold.  Darius Rucker rounds out this week’s Hot Country Albums Top 10 on the chart as Learn To Live is now nearing the 1.1 million sales mark. 

The second half of the Hot Country Albums chart, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan, starts off with Miranda Lambert’s Revolution and it is quickly followed-up by the Now That’s What I Call A Country Christmas! Two-disc  set of new and old Christmas classics.  Toby Keith’s American Ride is next and the album has now passed the 200,000 sales mark as the artist’s stellar “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song)” makes its way up the charts.   Reba’s Keep On Loving You is next and it has now passed the 300,000 albums sold mark as she returns to the Top 10 with her single “Consider Me Gone.”  Sugarland’s Love On The Inside has passed the 1.9 Million copies sold mark. 

Rascal Flatts’ Unstoppable jumped 20 spots this week to land the 16th best-selling country album while George Strait continued to Twang it at spot 17 (88 on the Hot 200 Albums chart).  Luke Bryan’s sophomore album has moved close to 160,000 copies now as “Do I” looks to become his first chart-topping single.  Keith Urban’s Defying Gravity has held steady this week as the 19th best-selling country album while everyone’s favorite singer/songwriter Kenny Chesney’s Greatest Hits II continues to prove that he’s alive.  It has now moved nearly 500,000 copies which isn’t bad for a package of previously released material (minus the single “Out Last Night”). 

In this week’s interesting section of our chart rundown, Jamey Johnson’s album That Lonesome Song may be one of the few country albums on this week’s tally to find itself losing fans but the album still moved nearly 9,000 copies while the young artist heavy Very Special Christmas 7, a project benefitting the Special Olympics debuts at 130 on Nielsen SoundScan’s Hot 200 Albums chart. The album features contributions from country artists Gloriana, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Carter Twins (the first CD to feature them), Kellie Pickler amongst the popular teen and tween favorites like Miley Cyrus and Colbie Calliat.  Chris Young’s well-made Man I Want To Be finds a home right behind the holiday compilation as Young has released the title song as his follow-up to his break-through single “Getting You Home (Black Dress Song).”   Gloriana’s self-titled debut album re-enters this week’s chart at 185, thanks largely to their American Music Awards win for “Best New Artist.”  Jimmy Wayne’s Sara Smile debuts at 186, a spot which has to be disappointing for him and his record label, The Valory Music Company.

In other Hot 200 Albums chart news this week, YouTube sensation Susan Boyle has stunned the world once again as she sold over 700,000 copies of her I Dreamed A Dream album this past week.  It is the best first week of sales ever for a debuting female artist. Only Snoop Dog's Doggystyle album sold more in its first week and that was in 1993 when albums still sold remarkably well.  If you think about it, Susan may have sold even more records back then but then again, even nine years ago she likely wouldn't have scored a week like this as YouTube hadn't become that popular yet.