Środa 23 Gru 2009, 17:20

Last.fm Top Artists
For the first time this month, Brad Paisley made it up to #1 with 32 listeners, three more than the #2 artists – George Strait and Miranda Lambert – could manage. Lee Ann Womack (27) and the collective of Alan Jackson, Carrie Underwood and Martina McBride (all with 26) round out the Top 5. Joe Nichols had 16 listeners for the week, an improvement of 7 from the previous one. Shania Twain also gained some ground, moving up to 17 listeners from 12. Perhaps all of the talk about the best and worst of the ’00s had people reminiscing about when she was the hottest thing in music. Justin Townes Earle had 15 listeners to lead the Americana artists.

Last.fm Top Albums
This week, Lambert’s Revolution shares the #1 spot with Carrie Underwood’s Carnival Ride, both with 15 listeners. Fearless from Taylor Swift was #2 with 14. The 9513’s Album of the Decade, That Lonesome Song by Jamey Johnson, had 10 listeners to put it at #9 with a host of others, including the Dixie Chicks‘ Home, Sara Evans‘ Real Fine Place and Sugarland’s Enjoy The Ride. They were all behind Kellie Pickler’s Small Town Girl, which had 11 listeners. Hopefully those 11 listeners are all regular fans and not Superfans who will leap to her defense for even the slightest little criticism. Only the cult of American Idol generates these kinds of Superfans; I could write one line stating that Justin Guarini wasn’t fit to sing in subway stations, and I’d get a response saying that I’m deaf and he’s twice the singer that Kelly Clarkson ever will be. Speaking of, Clarkson was at #17 on the list, as All I Ever Wanted tied with 13 other albums, including some of the best from this year: Earle’s Midnight At The Movies, Rosanne Cash’s The List and Strait’s Twang. At least it’s an improvement over Lady GaGa.

Last.fm Top Tracks
Like most other places, Lady Antebellum is at #1 with 11 listeners for “Need You Now,” with Womack’s “Last Call” and Lambert’s “White Liar” right behind with 9 listeners. “Temporary Home” by Carrie Underwood makes it up to #4 with 7 listeners. While it’s miles better than “Cowboy Casanova” (damning with faint praise, admittedly), it’s tied on The 9513 chart with 10 other songs that are better than it. That would include “Welcome To The Future” by Paisley, “Toes” by Zac Brown Band, “Someday I’ll Be Forgiven For This” by Earle and “Dead Flowers” and “Time To Get A Gun” by Lambert. While it’s not exactly a traditional Christmas carol, five people did listen to Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December.”

Billboard Country Songs
Lady Antebellum continues its dominance on the Billboard charts, with “Need You Now” staying at #1, while Reba McEntire moves up a spot to #2 with “Consider Me Gone.” There was quite a bit of movement in the lower half of the Top 10, as Tim McGraw moved from #8 to #6 with “Southern Voice,” Lambert moved from #10 to #8 with “White Liar,” and Jason Aldean and Darius Rucker entered the Top 10 with “The Truth” at #9 and “History In The Making” at #10. “Temporary Home” jumped 10 places to be at #26 after 3 weeks, and Easton Corbin has his first Top 20 hit, as “A Little More Country Than That” moved up to #19. A couple of holiday songs also are moving up the charts quickly, with Rodney Carrington’s “Camouflage and Christmas Lights” jumping from #52 to #39, and Rucker’s “Candy Cane Christmas” moving from #60 to #47.

Billboard Country Albums
Fearless is still #1. And it was also the sales gainer for the week, which means that Taylor Swift has figured out a way to improve on being #1. It’s likely to hold that place for the next few weeks, with Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now being the biggest release in January. In the meantime, the band moved up to #3 with its self-titled debut. Frighteningly, the biggest chart jump was Rascal Flatts‘ Unstoppable, moving from #21 to #13. Not bad for a band whose latest single stiffed. Perhaps they’ve picked up that all-important CSI demographic.

Americana Music Association Chart
Rosanne Cash’s death grip on the #1 spot with The List is about as strong as Fearless on the Billboard charts. It had 430 total spins this week, more than 50 over its closest competition. The only change in the Top 5 is that Yonkers NY by Chip Taylor moved to #5. While it stayed at #4, The Band of Heathens did reach a milestone with 5,500 total spins for One Foot In The Ether. That makes it the most-played album on the chart. John Fogerty’s The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again had a bit of a resurgence, moving up to #7 after a couple weeks of backsliding. Mountain Soul II by Patty Loveless also jumped up a couple to #12.