2009年 Dec 10日 Thursday, 12:35

Last.fm Top Artists
A slew of additions has The 9513 group up to 135 members, we’ve sent a familiar face back to the top of the Top Artists chart. George Strait is at #1 with 31 listeners and is the only artist with more than 30 this week. Brad Paisley drops from #1 to a #5 tie with Alan Jackson, Lee Ann Womack and Carrie Underwood, all with 23 listeners. Sugarland isn’t getting much of a boost from its Christmas album, as the former perennial #1 artist sits at #9 with 22 listeners. Coming in at #10 is Sara Evans, who had 21 listeners, along with Dwight Yoakam. Evans has normally ranged between 14 and 18 listeners. Ryan Adams had 15 listeners to lead the Americana artists. For those looking for a little more traditional country, Jamey Johnson had 15 as well, putting him between Jennings (14) and Jones (also 15) — and Rascal Flatts (15), which definitely doesn’t fit with the song.

Last.fm Top Albums
Miranda Lambert managed the top two albums on the chart, with Revolution having 20 listeners and Kerosene having 13, along with Underwood’s Play On. Evans charted very well here also, with Born To Fly landing at #7 with 11 listeners, tied with Paisley’s Time Well Wasted. Evans’ four other albums had 8 listeners each, so her fans in the group had an all-out listening party last week. Womack also fared well, as Call Me Crazy had 12 listeners, I Hope You Dance had 10 and There’s More Where That Came From had 9. Of course, Underwood managed to get 100 percent of her discography in the Top 10, so I guess she wins. Let’s see her try that when she’s 10 or 20 albums into her career, though.

Last.fm Top Tracks
Of the 11 songs in the Top 10, only three are by Lambert, which is low for her. Of course, “White Liar” and “Dead Flowers” were #1 and #2 with 10 and 9 listeners, respectively. Lady Antebellum also had 9 listeners for “Need You Now.” Three of Womack’s finest songs, “Ashes By Now,” “Last Call” and “I May Hate Myself In The Morning,” all had 7 listeners. Maybe people needed a change of pace after hearing “There Is A God” or something. Trisha Yearwood’s “This Is Me You’re Talking To” had 7 listeners who can tolerate poor grammar when it’s sung well. Just outside of the Top 10 sits Lady GaGa with “Bad Romance” and its 6 listeners. Look, it’s bad enough “Cowboy Casanova” is #4 with 8 listeners; I don’t want to have to start writing about too many pop divas at once.

Billboard Country Songs
Reba McEntire moves up to #3 with “Consider Me Gone,” and she’s going to have to bump “Need You Now” and Luke Bryan’s “Do I” off to get her 23rd #1 single. David Nail moved up a couple spots to #8 with “Red Light,” and it looks like the country stylings of Dave Matthews couldn’t give Kenny Chesney a chart-topper, as “I’m Alive” slips from #6 to #9. “White Liar” keeps climbing the right way, making it to #11. Unfortunately, so does “That’s How Country Boys Roll” by Billy Currington, which enters the Top 20 at #18. The big gainer for the week was Paisley’s “American Saturday Night,” already at #21 after five weeks. Underwood’s new single, “Temporary Home,” starts its climb to the top by debuting at #48.

Billboard Country Albums
Taylor Swift and her legion of Grammy nominations moved back to the top spot and was in fact the sales gainer for the week… meaning there were still some people who hadn’t owned Fearless. Now that’s been remedied and we all have a copy or two, it can drop off the charts, right? Her self-titled album also had a bump from #10 to #7 after 162 weeks on the chart. Underwood’s Play On falls to #2 after a three-week run at #1, and Sugarland continues to see its Green And Gold album move up the charts, entering the Top 5 this week. Diamond Rio, who’s still on the country charts for some reason, saw The Reason take a big jump from #56 to #42, just one spot behind its peak position. The big debut of the week was Jimmy Wayne’s Sara Smile, which showed up at #32. First Dave Matthews can’t score a #1 hit, and now an album with a Hall and Oates lead single can’t debut inside the Top 30. So much for star power.

Americana Music Association Chart
Last week’s Top 4 is this week’s Top 4, with The Avett Brothers moving into the Top 5 with I And Love And You. Rosanne Cash’s The List had an add this week, meaning that we’ve found the world’s slowest Americana program director. It had 454 spins overall, giving it nearly 4,000 plays to date. New to the Top 10 is Yonkers NY by Chip Taylor, in at #8 from #14, and Circles Around Me by Sam Bush, from #13 to #10. Jay Farrar (Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo) and Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie) debut at #33 with One Fast Move Or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur, the music for a Jack Kerouac documentary. The lyrics are taken from Kerouac’s Big Sur novel.

Freebie of the Week
Talented folk/Americana singer/songwriter Mando Saenz is giving away his 2008 album, Bucket… provided you help him gain some new fans. Go to www.mandosaenz.com and submit your e-mail address, as well as the e-mail addresses of three friends, and you can download the album for free. If you’re feeling generous, you can download a digital copy by paying what you want, starting at $1. This strategy worked pretty well for Radiohead, so it would be nice to see Saenz do well with it. Two of the songs from Bucket, “Come Out Tonight” and “Candy Red,” are also available for download on his Reverb Nation page.