For the first time since being released, Scotty McCreery’s Clear As Day album does not hold the distinction of being the best-selling country album in the USA. That disctinction belongs to Toby Keith, whose latest album Clancy’s Tavern, which came out virtually a year after Bullets in the Gun, moved 69,000 albums this past week, 27,000 more than Scotty. It was also a good week for Vince Gill and Casey Donahew Band as each artist debuted in the Top 10 of the Top Current Country Albums chart compiled from the data provided by SoundScan’s Top 200 Current Albums chart.
Vince Gill Returns Strong with Guitar Slinger
With 21,000 copies in the hands of fans nationwide, Vince Gill’s Guitar Slinger, the 13th album of his legendary career and the first since the platinum-selling four disc collection These Days. Just before Vince Gill on the chart is Lady Antebellum, who continue to Own The Night with their latest album. It has now sold 718,000 copies and with the holiday shopping season approaching, it’s likely to hit Platinum by the end of the year. Jason Aldean rounds out the Top 10 with My Kinda Party, while already certified Double Platinum, it too will sell a couple hundred thousand more copies in the final two months of the year with the CMA Awards and ACA Awards helping provide big platforms for the artist in addition to the holiday shopping season.
Top 5 Albums for the Week of October 2, 2011
| LW | TW | Artist | Album | Sales TW | Sales Total |
| NEW | 5 | Toby Keith | Clancy's Tavern | 69,000 | 69,000 |
| 3 | 7 | Scotty McCreery | Clear As Day | 42,000 | 384,000 |
| 7 | 8 | Lady Anthebellum | Own The Night | 31,000 | 718,000 |
| NEW | 14 | Vince Gill | Guitar Slinger | 21,000 | 21,000 |
| 17 | 21 | Jason Aldean | My Kinda Party | 18,000 | 1,958,000 |
“Georgia Peach” Lauren Alaina’s Wildflower Sells Strongly
With 16,000 more copies sold, Lauren Alaina has now sold over 111,000 copies of Wildflower, moving her closer to the sales that last season’s #2, Crystal Bowersox, sold with her debut through a whole year. Luke Bryan’s Tailgates & Tanlines was certified Gold recently and while he’s yet to scan, 500,000, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he does so during the holiday season, particularly with “I Don’t Want This Night To End” selling strongly digitally.
Casey Donahew Band Debuts In Top 10 of the Charts
The Blake Shelton, Hunter Hayes, Jana Kramer and Big & Rich-lead Footloose soundtrack has now sold 60,000 copies in a month on the charts while Martina McBride’s Eleven has sold 66,000 in three weeks, just as lead single “I’m Gonna Love You Through It” hits the Top 25 of the radio charts. Texas band Casey Donahew Band hits big this week with sales of 11,000 copies for their third LP, Double Wide Dream. The band, which is virtually unknown to mainstream country fans, may just become the next Eli Young Band by crossing over from Texas/Southwest success into mainstream country’s radar. With sales like that, you’d think Nashville labels will come calling.
Top 10 Albums for the Week of October 2, 2011
| LW | TW | Artist | Album | Sales TW | Sales Total |
| 10 | 24 | Lauren Alaina | Wildflower | 16,000 | 111,000 |
| 18 | 26 | Luke Bryan | Tailgates & Tanlines | 15,000 | 408,000 |
| 14 | 29 | Various | Footloose Soundtrack | 13,000 | 60,000 |
| 21 | 30 | Martina McBride | Eleven | 12,000 | 66,000 |
| NEW | 31 | Casey Donahew Band | Double Wide Dream | 11,000 | 11,000 |
Strait’s Here For A Good Time While Gilbert’s Halfway To Heaven
Brantley Gilbert has sold 282,000 copies of Halfway To Heaven so far and while he likely won’t hit Gold in sales before the end of the year, he’s gonna get there sometime in the spring of 2012, particularly with another single from the album expected to be hitting airwaves by then. Current single “Country Must Be Country Wide” is Top 5 this week on the radio charts. George Strait hit #1 with the lead single and title track to Here For A Good Time and looks to follow that up with “Love’s Gonna Make It Alright.” Taylor Swift’s Speak Now has now sold 3.7 million copies since being released nearly a year ago. She’ll be releasing a Speak Now Live CD/DVD combo to hold fans over until her new album comes out sometime next year, perhaps even a year from now.
Montgomery Gentry has now sold 18,000 copies of Rebels on the Run in two weeks on the charts while The Pistol Annies, who are already working on their sophomore album with T-Bone Burnett, have now sold 136,000 copies of Hell On Heels, their debut. The group features Angaleena Presley, Ashley Monroe and Miranda Lambert, whose latest album, Four The Record dropped this week and is expected to become the clear #1 country album and has a shot at snagging the #1 slot from Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto (which sold nearly 500,000 copies this week) and Justin Bieber’s holiday album (which debuts on next week’s chart w/Miranda). After quite a few weeks outside of our chart, Brad Paisley returns to this week’s rundown with This Is Country Music. The superstar, which released Diary of a Player, his memoir, this week, has now sold 516,000 copies of the album.
Five Notable Albums for the Week of October 2, 2011
| LW | TW | Artist | Album | Sales TW | Sales Total |
| 24 | 32 | Brantley Gilbert | Halfway to Heaven | 11,000 | 282,000 |
| 44 | 37 | George Strait | Here For A Good Time | 9,000 | 222,000 |
| 39 | 39 | Taylor Swift | Speak Now | 9,000 | 3,717,000 |
| 27 | 57 | Montgomery Gentry | Rebels On The Run | 6,000 | 18,000 |
| 55 | 59 | Pistol Annies | Hell On Heels | 6,000 | 136,000 |
A Few More Quick Facts From This Week’s SoundScan Chart
- ¼ of the Top 100 albums on the SoundScan Hot 200 Albums chart belong to country and roots music artists.
- Hunter Hayes has now sold 29,000 copies of his self-titled debut album in three weeks on the charts. We have a feeling that this talented newcomer will become one of 2012’s big breakout stars. His first single “Storm Warning” is now Top 20 at country radio.
- Chris Young has now sold over 200,000 copies of Neon, the album features “You” and #1 hit “Tomorrow” and future hit “Save Water, Drink Beer.”
- CMA Award nominees The Civil Wars have now sold 200,000 copies of their fantastic album Barton Hollow.
- Kristin Chenoweth, who co-hosts the ACA’s with Trace Adkins, returns to the chart with an over 300% sales increase for Some Lessons Learned, her country debut.
As noted above, Miranda Lambert releases her fourth album Four The Record this week and it will land at the top of the charts next week. Craig Morgan’s debut digital EP for Black River Entertainment will likely appear somewhere as well, depending on how much his fans know of the release. As usual, return here next week to find out how the Top 10 shakes out along with our five notable albums and quick facts!
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