Three of the Top Five albums on this week's Country Albums Chart Report are brand new releases and all of them land in the #2 to #4 range. The only hold-overs on the Top 5 are #1 Luke Bryan's Kill The Lights and last week's #1, Illinois from Brett Eldredge, which holds onto #5 this week. At #2 is Alabama's first album in 14 years Southern Drawl, a record which sold nearly 21k in its first week (note these are raw sales numbers and don't include any sales + stream figures as the Hot 200 Albums is the only place for those #s) Also, on our clickable chart, you'll see that Alabama's previously released collection of Hymns and Gospel songs, Angels Among Us has sold over 115k copies to date, a strong figure for any album without any real radio airplay. At #3 is the third album from Turnpike Troubadours. The self-titled album scanned 19,400 copies this week, not a bad number for an independent band working with Thirty Tigers for album distribution. At #4 is the third Columbia Records release from Country Vocal powerhouse band Home Free. Their Country Evolution album sold over 9,000 copies. This is the band's highest-charting debut and peak, surpassing the #9 peak for Crazy Life and the #12 peak for Full of Cheer (both 2014 album releases).
Top Ten Recap
Sitting at #6 is Sam Hunt's Montevallo. It remains one of the best-selling albums in all genres in 2015 and sold another 8,800 copies last week. Eric Church's The Outsiders scanned 5,300 to hold down #8 while Zac Brown Band's Jekyll+Hyde is at #8 with 532k+ scanned to date. At #9 is Florida Georgia Line's Anything Goes with 3,800 more copies added to their tally while Little Big Town's Pain Killer rounds out the Top 10 with 351k+ scanned to date (The album features the hits "Girl Crush" and "Day Drinking")
Notables
Notables include news about the latest from Maddie & Tae, Alan Jackson,Kacey Musgraves, Cam, Reba, Kelsea Ballerini, Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood and more! Clare Dunn's EP, Leigh Nash's The State I'm In, Joe Ely's Pandhandle Rambler, Blackberry Smoke's Acoustic Wood Wire & Roses (EP) and Diamond Rio's I Made It all debut on the chart this week. Diamond Rio's album debuted at the final spot on the chart, #75.
Top 5 Country Albums: September 22, 2015
- Top 5 Country Album Chart Numbers rounded to nearest hundred albums sold.
| CNTRY | Artist | Album | Week | Total Scans |
| 1 | Luke Bryan | Kill The Lights | 27,500 | 584,400 |
| 2 | Alabama | Southern Drawl | 20,900 | 20,900 |
| 3 | Turnpike Troubadours | Turnpike Troubadours | 19,400 | 19,400 |
| 4 | Home Free | Country Evolution | 9,700 | 9,700 |
| 5 | Brett Eldredge | Illinois | 9,500 | 53,200 |
Read the entire Top 10 and Notable Albums list here
acapellaluv
**HOME FREE just released a new awesome 6 Alabama songs mash-up vid: "ALABAMA SAMPLER"!! :)
Snich Ranchez
This is great!
Marcia
Thanks for this great news. Home Free being included with the likes of Alabama is impressive. We Fries are so very proud of them and we thank you for all your support of them.
acapellaluv
**Per Country Music Nation: HOTTEST Album Release Day Of The Year: Country music trail blazers Alabama & Home Free!! Here they are at #2 & #4 (both without any real radio play)!!! Real good music wins!!! . **Per Duane/Oak Ridge Boys on 'Home Free': "They have that "MAGIC" that I haven't seen in a long time"!!** :)
acapellaluv
Billboard,still:Alabama #2Country/#14 BB200& Home Free #4 Country/#46 BB200!Thx for your sup- port of great artists/not always mainstream!CMN called it, too! Love HF's"Seven Bridges Road"& origs. "Good Ol' Country Harmony 9/6/15" (live debut You Tube) & very short/but awesome "Serenity"...(Per Tim/bass: it was all he had to say, at that moment)! :)
Michelle
This is great! These are all great performers. I already have Country Evolution. Time to go get the rest, especially Alabama! Thanks!