Last.fm Top Artists

Johnny Cash closes out February as the #1 artist for the week, with 30 listeners, a high-water mark for him for the year. Right behind him was Miranda Lambert with 29. After that, the list drops off considerably, as the artists tied for #3 were Gary Allan and Reba McEntire with 20 listeners apiece. Lady Antebellum really fell off, with just 15 listeners. In a change of pace, seven of the Top 10 singers were men, with McEntire, Lambert and Lee Ann Womack (19 listeners) breaking through for the women. Sarah Buxton managed 11, thanks to her new album, and Josh Thompson had just 7 people listen to him on his release week. Townes Van Zandt had 11 listeners to lead the way for the Americana artists.

The 9513 Last.fm Artists of the Month

1. Miranda Lambert: 110 listeners
2. George Strait: 94
   Johnny Cash: 94
4. Brad Paisley: 86
5. Lady Antebellum: 85
   Carrie Underwood: 85
   Gary Allan: 85

Last.fm Top Albums

This chart finally seems to be fixed after being out of commission for a month, as it has Lambert’s Revolution with 15 listeners and Cash’s new American VI: Ain’t No Grave with 13. Cash fans must have been in a reflective mood this week, as American IV: The Man Comes Around had 7 listeners to rank #14. The Top 5 was rounded out by That Lonesome Song by Jamey Johnson, Some Hearts by Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley’s American Saturday Night and Josh Turner’s Haywire, all with 9 listeners. Country California sweetheart Ashley Monroe managed to make it into the Top 10 as well, with 8 people checking out Satisfied.

Last.fm Top Tracks

There were 11 songs that made it into the Top 10, and all but one were from Cash. “Ain’t No Grave” had 13 listeners to lead the way, and “Aloha Oe,” “Cool Water” and “Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound” had 11. Cash also had 6 listeners for “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Hurt,” so it was a real career retrospective week for some people. Only Turner’s “Why Don’t We Just Dance” with 9 listeners snuck through, making him one of only six non-Cash singers in the Top 20. Some high-ranking songs by living people included “I Run To You” by Lady Antebellum and “The House That Built Me” and “Airstream Song” by Lambert with 7 listeners. Ryan Bingham also entered the Top 20 for “I Don’t Know,” which had 6 listeners.

The Last.fm Tracks of the Month

1. Lady Antebellum – “Need You Now”: 43 listeners
2. Josh Turner – “Why Don’t We Just Dance”: 35
3. Miranda Lambert – “The House That Built Me”: 34
4. Lady Antebellum – “American Honey”: 29
5. Lady Antebellum – “Hello World”: 26
   Miranda Lambert – “White Liar”: 26

Billboard Country Songs

For a third straight week, the #1 song is “Why Don’t We Just Dance,” making it officially the biggest song of Turner’s career. Because of that and the fact that Paisley stuck at #2 with “American Saturday Night,” everything else pretty much stalled as well, with just a couple songs moving up a spot. Turner’s gain was a loss for Toby Keith, as “Crying For Me” fell back a couple spots to #8. The one song that did gain considerable ground was “Ain’t Back Yet” by Kenny Chesney. After two weeks on the chart, it’s at #15, which is pretty much unheard of for a singer who’s not young, blonde and female. The old guard of Nashville (meaning anyone over 30) had a nice resurgence in general, as the current singles from George Strait, Tim McGraw and Martina McBride all moved up at least a couple of spots, though they’re all still outside of the Top 20 at the moment.

Billboard Country Albums

The Top 5 didn’t change at all, meaning that Lady Antebellum and Turner are still the artists to beat. The Crazy Heart soundtrack moved up a couple of notches to #6, it’s highest position on the chart to date. It’ll probably need an Oscar win to move up much higher, but it’s hanging tough with some of the genre’s hottest stars without receiving much if any mainstream radio play. The only major debut for the week was She’s Like Texas from The Josh Abbott Band; the Texas band’s second release came in at #28. Right behind that at #29 was Ride Through The Country from Colt Ford. Maybe his collaboration with Johnson on “Cold Beer” is gaining some new fans for the country/hip-hop artist.

Americana Music Association Chart

After a rash of new albums, the Top 5 has stabilized, with Crazy Heart at #1 and Ray Wylie Hubbard’s Enlightenment at #2. Hubbard has the lead in overall spins, though, 2,571 to 2,445. The Band of Heathens‘ One Foot In The Ether moved up to #6 and has the most spins of any album on the chart with 7,498, one play ahead of Robert Earl Keen’s The Rose Hotel. New to the Top 10 this week are Wings from Will Kimbrough, which shot from #17 to #9, and The Things We Left Behind by Blue Rodeo, moving up 3 spots to #10. American VI was at #12 in its second week on the chart, with 201 spins and 20 new ads. The only album that was added to more stations was The Open Road from John Hiatt, debuting at #30 with 22 adds and 122 spins.

Freebie of the Week:

It’s March, which means preparations for the year’s greatest holiday, St. Patrick’s Day, should have already begun in earnest. You can get in the spirit by downloading three songs from The Bloody Irish Boys on Last.fm. They describe themselves as a drinking group with a music problem and are in the Pogues/Dropkick Murphys punk Irish vein. “Drunk Tonight” is the best of the free bunch. In a more traditional vein, there’s Aul’ Grey Whistle, a Celtic-folk band from Australia. This band has 10 tracks available, including some good instrumentals like “Jenny’s Picking Cockles – The Earl’s Chair” and a take on the traditional “Tipping It Up To Nancy.”

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Last.fm Top Artists

After a flirtation with some new albums, most of The 9513 group members went back to the old favorites this week. Miranda Lambert is #1 with 29 listeners, and Sugarland makes the big leap up to #2 with 27. That’s nine more listeners than last week. Lady Antebellum and Josh Turner, meanwhile, dropped back down to #10 with 21 listeners. So much for new music. Johnny Cash tied with Lee Ann Womack and Reba McEntire for #5 with 24 listeners. He’s got the next big-name release, so perhaps he can add to his usual high weekly totals. The Americana contingent was led by Justin Townes Earle with 14 listeners and Kasey Chambers with 13.

Last.fm Top Tracks

Of all the Turner tracks that made the Top 10 last week, not a single one repeated the trick this week. In fact, only “Why Don’t We Just Dance” charted at all, with 6 listeners. Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” led the way with 9 listeners, Followed by “Hello World” and Womack’s “Last Call” with 8. Among the tracks with 7 listeners was Easton Corbin’s “A Little More Country Than That,” which benefited from being a free iTunes download, and Cash’s “I Walk The Line,” which benefited from being awesome. Cash also had a #12 song with “Hurt” (6 listeners), making him the only person to ever have two songs in Top 20 that were recorded more than 40 years apart. Along with Lambert, Lady Antebellum and Cash, Earle also had multiple songs in the Top 20, with “Poor Fool” and “The Good Life” having 6 listeners each.

Billboard Country Songs

Turner gets a second week at #1 with “Why Don’t We Just Dance,” with Brad Paisley moving up to #2 with “American Saturday Night.” After that, here comes the Hillbilly Pride songs, with “That’s How Country Boys Roll,” “Hillbilly Bone” and “A Little More Country Than That” all moving up quickly. Outside of the Top 10, Kenny Chesney’s “Ain’t Back Yet” debuted at #23, one of the highest debuts in a long time. After that, it seems like every song that’s been struggling on the charts is finally gaining ground. “Didn’t You Know How Much I Loved You” by Kellie Pickler moved three spots to #14 after 25 weeks. “Keep On Lovin’ You” by Steel Magnolia moved to #15 after 23 weeks. Even “Today” by Gary Allan moved up a couple spots to #18 after being around for a whopping 34 weeks. Unfortunately, this clearing-house effect also meant that Justin Moore’s wretched “Backwoods” cracked the Top 20, ending up at #19. Poor Sarah Buxton still can’t catch a break though, as “Outside My Window” only made it to #25, and it’s been kicking around the charts only a week less than “Today.”

Billboard Country Albums

Lady Antebellum is still at #1 with Need You Now, though it got knocked off the top spot of the Top 200 by Sade. Turner’s Haywire debuted at #2 on the country charts and #5 overall. This is the first time since these chart updates began to cover Billboard that Taylor Swift’s Fearless is as low as #3. It’s clearly time to release a new edition of the album. Reckless Kelly debuted at #22 with Somewhere In Time, which is where Bulletproof landed in 2008. They’re nothing if not consistent. The other debut for the week was a greatest hits package from Chris Cagle at #34. In other news, there’s apparently a country singer out there named Chris Cagle, and he had enough songs to put together a greatest hits package.

Americana Music Association Chart

The Crazy Heart soundtrack and Ray Wylie Hubbard’s Enlightenment have been trading the #1 and #2 spots for the last three weeks, and this week, it’s Jeff Bridges and company in the top spot. Add to that Patty Griffin’s House Of Gold holding at #3, Reckless Kelly moving from #10 to #4 and Alison Moorer moving up a notch to #5 with Crows, every album in the Top 5 was released this year. Among the fast risers are Animal Boy by Matt The Electrician (yes, a former electrician), which moved from #37 to #23, and Will Kimbrough’s Wings, which moved up 11 spots to #17. New albums from Cash, Eleven Hundred Springs and the Carolina Chocolate Drops are getting adds already, and they may be joining the crowd of recent releases at the top. American VI is already at #40 on the charts, in fact.

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Last.fm Top Artists

While Josh Turner has normally averaged around 13 listeners per week, the release of a new album shot him up to #4 on the list this week, with 23 listeners. It’s a decent showing but not spectacular, which is pretty much in line with how the album reviews have been. Once again, the #1 artist was George Strait with 28 listeners, with Miranda Lambert (26) and Lady Antebellum (24) right behind. Tim McGraw had 22 listeners, which represents his best showing all year. Perhaps it was the unhealthy snack, “Still,” that brought around some of his dormant fans. Sara Evans also had a strong showing, as her 19 listeners left her tied with Dwight Yoakam and Trisha Yearwood. They help to fill the chart’s “We wish radio still played them” quotient.

Last.fm Top Tracks

“Need You Now” by Lady Antebellum had an amazing 17 listeners, which is the highest tally that any song has had this year and is probably one of the best results for any song in any given week. Now that Need You Now has been out for a while, the favorites are starting to be seen. Those include “American Honey” and “Our Kind Of Love” (both with 11 listeners this week). Turner, as expected, had a slew of songs in the Top 10, with “Why Don’t We Just Dance” leading the way with 14 listeners, putting it at #2 on the list. Four other songs from Haywire had 10 listeners, including the title track, “The Answer,” “I Wouldn’t Be A Man” and “As Fast As I Could.” In fact, the only two songs in the Top 20 not from those two artists was Lambert’s “The House That Built Me” with 11 listeners and “White Liar,” with 8.

Billboard Country Songs

Turner celebrated his new album with his third #1 song, “Why Don’t We Just Dance.” It jumped all the way from #4 to get there, knocking back “White Liar” from #2 to #5 in the process. Darius Rucker also entered the Top 5 with “History In The Making” moving to #4. The youth movement in country music did well this week, as the Top 20 includes Carrie Underwood at #8, Easton Corbin at #11, Taylor Swift at #15, Kellie Pickler at #17 and Josh Thompson at #19. On the other hand, Strait’s “I Gotta Get To You” is at #43 after five weeks on the chart, and Reba McEntire’s “I Keep On Lovin’ You” is #42 after three. Both of those songs were among the fastest movers this week, so the veterans may still end up slugging it out with the youngsters for chart supremacy.

Billboard Country Albums

Need You Now continued to dominate the country charts and the Billboard 200, where they managed to fend off new albums from both Lil Wayne and a Jonas brother. Zac Brown Band also had a major post-Grammy push, as The Foundation moved to #3 on the country charts and jumped from #22 to #10 on the Top 200. That’s the highest the album has charted there. The Crazy Heart soundtrack ended up at #7, meaning that Jeff Bridges charted better than Tim McGraw, Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert. The biggest debut was Dailey & Vincent’s Sing The Statler Brothers, a Cracker Barrel exclusive that made it to #19. With successful albums from Zac Brown Band and George Jones, Cracker Barrel is becoming a pretty viable market for country albums.

Freebie of the Week

With Mardi Gras coming up, here’s a little swamp pop to get you in the mood. Lil’ Band O’ Gold is a Louisiana super group featuring rocker C.C. Adcock, accordion whiz Steve Riley and a host of swamp pop legends like Warren Storm and Tommy McClain. Along with one excellent record, the band has played with the likes of Robert Plant and Fats Domino and was the subject of a documentary, The Promised Land that debuted in 2009. A couple of songs from the band are available at Room 609 Films’ website. Scroll to the bottom of the page and download “Spoonbread” and “I Don’t Want To Know.” If you liked those, the band’s self-titled album is worth tracking down.

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Last.fm Top Artists

It didn’t take long for Miranda Lambert to reclaim her status as the #1 artist, with 28 listeners. Next came Carrie Underwood with 26, and Lady Antebellum with 24. So the whole Lady A surge lasted for all of a week around here. Gary Allan gets another week in the Top 10, with 23 listeners, so he’s building some decent momentum for his new release. Taylor Swift had 22 listeners, proving her fans are still loyal. However, Butch Walker, the guy who was largely responsible of the one part of the Swift’s Grammy performance that actually worked, couldn’t even chart. That’s unfair. The Top Americana artist was the world’s most relaxed Oscar nominee, Ryan Bingham, with 14 listeners.

Last.fm Top Tracks

In the first post-Grammy chart, Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” and Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” both had 7 listeners to put them at #11, and 6 listened to Phoenix’s “1901.” Apparently country fans checked out some of the non-country winners, so hopefully the pop and rock fans did the same with some of the country winners. The Top 20 was dominated by Lady Antebellum, Lambert and Swift, with the Top two songs being, once again, “Need You Now” with 13 listeners and “American Honey” with 11. The four songs tied for #3 were Swift’s “White Horse” and “You Belong With Me,” Lambert’s “The House That Built Me” and Lady Antebellum’s “Our Kind Of Love.” Inexplicably, Gloriana’s “Wild At Heart” had 7 listeners. Didn’t they cease to be relevant about five or six weeks ago? Also inexplicable, but in a good way, was the fact that 5 people played “Oh The Vampyre” by A.A. Bondy. I have no qualms about the song choice, but it just seems like a really random song to get that many listeners in one week.

Billboard Country Songs

Hope for Lambert’s “White Liar” hittin the #1 spot dimmed considerably, as Jason Aldean spent a second week at #1 with “The Truth.” Furthermore, The #3-5 songs – Brad Paisley’s “American Saturday Night,” Josh Turner’s “Why Don’t We Just Dance” and Darius Rucker’s “History In The Making” — are all gaining rapidly in airplay, making any of them more likely to get to #1. If Lambert is to be denied her first Billboard #1, at least it was because of a good Aldean song and not something with “Tractor” in the title. New to the Top 10 was “Temporary Home” by Underwood in just its 10th week on the charts. Steel Magnolia notched its first Top 20 hit, as “Keep On Lovin’ You” made it to #19. For whatever reason, Keith Urban’s “’Til Summer Comes Around” dropped a spot to #13. If that song doesn’t crack the Top 10 but “That’s How Country Boys Roll” by Billy Currington does, country radio has a lot of explaining to do.

Billboard Country Albums

Lady Antebellum not only dethrones Fearless from #1 on the country chart, but Need You Now debuts at #1 in the Billboard Top 200. The real question will be if the trio can keep Swift from taking back #1 in a week. The only other debut for the week is a rehashed collection of love songs from Vince Gill, which charted at #36. I’m holding out for a collection of Gill singing about lost love, cheating and general misery, as I’ve always liked his heart-breakers more than his love songs.

Americana Music Association Chart

The AMA chart is heating up with its third different #1 album in three weeks. This time, it’s the Crazy Heart soundtrack, which knocks Ray Wylie Hubbard down to #2. While the AMA may not be as influential as Billboard or the other mainstream music charts, the fact that The Dude has a #1 album makes it infinitely cooler. Reckless Kelly jumps from #33 to #10 in its third week on the chart with Somewhere In Time. Patty Griffin’s Downtown Church is rising quickly as well. After just one week, it already sits at #13 on the chart. With 35 adds, it was the most-added album of the week as well. If Lee Ann Womack and Jo Dee Messina wanted hit songs about God, they should have gotten Buddy Miller on board and aimed for the Americana market instead of wooing those heathens in mainstream country radio.

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A couple notes: Because the Last.fm Top Albums chart is messed up (the same chart has repeated all month, and not even the new Lady Antebellum album showed up this week), I’ll be avoiding it until it’s fixed. Secondly, I’ve done a little tallying and have come up with the top artists of the month for The 9513 group. I’ll post the Top 5 here, and the Top 20 will be available to peruse over on our group’s Last.fm page.

Last.fm Top Artists

As expected, a brand new album and a popular lead-off single helped catapult Lady Antebellum to #1 on the list, with 29 listeners. While the trio had tailed off in popularity here in recent weeks, the new album release brought them roaring to the top. They will be hard-pressed, though, to top the track record of #2 artist Miranda Lambert, who had 28. She’s been at or near the top of the charts ever since Revolution was released last fall. Gary Allan, who has a new album of his own out soon, made it up to #5 with 22 listeners, making for his best showing of the month. The Top 20 also includes a few country legends, namely, George Jones, Emmylou Harris and Waylon Jennings, all with 17 listeners. The Americana segment was led by Justin Townes Earle and Ryan Bingham, with 13 apiece.

The 9513 Last.fm Artists of the Month

1. Miranda Lambert: 110 listeners
2. Johnny Cash: 105
3. George Strait: 102
4. Lady Antebellum: 98
5. Alan Jackson: 98

Last.fm Top Tracks

Again, no surprise, as Lady Antebellum’s new album took up most of the Top Tracks. Ten of the top 12 songs were from Need You Now. The title track was #1 with 14 listeners, followed by “American Honey” with 13 and “Perfect Day,” “Our Kind Of Love” and “Hello World” with 11. Lambert’s “White Liar” also had 11 listeners. There are very few songs in the Top 20 that didn’t come from Lady A or Lambert, in fact. Reba McEntire had 7 listeners for “Consider Me Gone” to pace the non-Antelambert songs. There’s a weird-yet-not-unpleasant batch of songs with 6 listeners that include “Mama’s Eyes” and “Black Eyes Suzy” from Earle, “Giving Up The Gun” by Vampire Weekend, “House of Gold” by Patty Griffin and “Breathless” by Taylor Swift. There are anywhere from zero to three country acts in that group, depending on your own personal standards.

The 9513 Last.fm Tracks of the Month

1. “Need You Now” – Lady Antebellum: 43 listeners
2. “The House That Built Me” – Miranda Lambert: 35
3. “Consider Me Gone” – Reba McEntire: 30
4. “White Liar” – Miranda Lambert: 30
5. “American Honey” – Lady Antebellum: 30
6. “Last Call” – Lee Ann Womack: 30

Billboard Country Songs

Three of the Top 5 songs are new and quickly on the rise. “The Truth” moved up to #1, giving Jason Aldean his third chart-topper. No, having “Big Green Tractor” #1 on the ringtones chart doesn’t count. Lambert jumped from #4 to #2 with “White Liar,” and Brad Paisley’s “American Saturday Night” moved to #5 from #8. Many of the fast-rising singles are from Nashville’s established stars, but in the midst of all the Carries and Taylors and Flattses, Easton Corbin moves “A Little More Country Than That” up to #14. “Twang,” from Corbin soundalike George Strait, dropped a couple of spots to #16. There are a flock of debuts this week, but the one with the best showing was “Wrong Baby Wrong” by Martina McBride. She hasn’t had a Top 10 song since 2006, so she needs a smash hit to avoid falling into that “has-been” category that’s ensnared many hitmakers from the ’90s and early ‘00.

Billboard Country Albums

No change in the Top 5 (Fearless, still), but the Crazy Heart soundtrack debuts at #6. Admittedly, the audience for this soundtrack and the Hannah Montana one are pretty different, so it probably won’t have the same staying power. Still, it’s gotten the music of Buck Owens, The Louvin Brothers and Bingham out to a few more people, which is laudatory. Bingham’s Roadhouse Sun moved from #64 to #56, its second straight week of big gains after a long absence from the charts. The other debut for the week was Gretchen Wilson’s greatest hits package, which only came out about four years too late. Among the albums showing the most upward momentum was Luke Bryan’s Doin’ My Thing, which moved from #16 to #12.

Americana Music Association Chart

We finally have a new #1, and the reigning champ is Ray Wylie Hubbard and his ungodly Fiona Applesque A: Enlightenment B: Endarkenment Hint: There Is No C album. It had 353 spins last week, almost 20 more than Rosanne Cash’s The List, which moves to #2. The Crazy Heart soundtrack made a big impact here as well, making it all the way to #3 with 325 spins. The other new entry to the Top 10 is Crows by Allison Moorer, moving from #12 to #9. New debuts for the week include Things We Left Behind, the new album from Canadian Americana (Canadiana?) vets Blue Rodeo (starting at #28) and Somewhere In Time, the return-to-roots by Reckless Kelly (#33). Thank goodness that the countries of Canada and Texas continue to bring us so much good music.

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Last.fm Top Artists

Johnny Cash rules the roost for a second straight week, this time with 29 listeners. Surprisingly, Sugarland made it up to a tie for #2 with Miranda Lambert, with 26 listeners. After being the dominant artist in the early months of The 9513 group, the duo had lately fallen out of the Top 10. This week’s showing represents a gain of 8 listeners. Lady Antebellum, the band most likely to top Cash in listeners next week, ended up at #6 with 23, along with Alan Jackson and Carrie Underwood. Also making a strong run was Merle Haggard, who ended up at #11 with 20 listeners. It’s the first time he’s been in the Top 20 all year, which is somewhat surprising. Also making the Top 20 for the first time are Kenny Chesney (19 listeners) and Rascal Flatts (18). However, I don’t think they were as missed quite as much as The Hag was.

Last.fm Top Albums

The results for this are so similar to the last two weeks that I think something is wrong with this particular chart. Either that, or we have the most rigid listening habits of any group here. Nevertheless, the one slight change is that Lady Antebellum edged past Lambert’s Revolution, 20 listeners to 18, to take sole possession of the #1 spot on the charts.

Last.fm Top Tracks

A couple of the standbys are at the top of the chart this week – Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” with 11 listeners, Lambert’s “The House That Built Me” with 10 – but a few new songs have made their way to the top of the charts. Lady Antebellum has two new songs, “American Honey” and “Our Kind Of Love” with 7 and 6 listeners, respectively. Also coming in with 7 listeners was “Today Was A Fairytale” by Taylor Swift. Granted, this is a song for a romantic comedy soundtrack, but Swift is getting a little old to be singing about fairytales and white horses. Waylon Jennings also had 7 listeners for “Are You Sure hank Done It This Way.” I don’t know if it’s a result of being on the Crazy Heart soundtrack or if people just wanted a Waylon fix, but it’s one of the few songs in the Top 20 that would be considered “country” without putting “pop” in front of it.

Billboard Country Songs

We finally have a new #1 on the charts, and it’s “Southern Voice” by Tim McGraw, which leap-frogged Dierks Bentley to move from #3 to the top spot. “I Just Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes” stays at #2, and Jason Aldean had a big jump from #6 to #3 with “The Truth.” The big gainer for the week was Swift’s “Fearless,” which now sits at #20 after five weeks. This is what star power gets you. Gary Allan just got “Today” to #21, and it’s been charting for 30 weeks now. The best news that the charts have to offer this week is that Trace Adkins‘ “Ala-Freakin-Bama” dropped from #49 to #59, so we’ll soon be able to pretend that this song never actually existed. My apologies to people who do live in Alabama, though, because you’ll be stuck with this song for years.

Billboard Country Albums

The time is rapidly approaching where we will have a new #1 album, potentially for longer than a week. But for now, Fearless, #1. The only change in the Top 10 is that Lambert’s Revolution moved up a spot to #7. While we’re preparing for the great pop-country throwdown of 2010 between Swift and Lady Antebellum, it’s worth noting that the Hannah Montana soundtrack continues to fall, while Jamey Johnson’s That Lonesome Song moves from #22 to #18 and was one of the biggest gainers for the week.

The highest-charting debut, or re-debut in this case, was Ryan Bingham’s Roadhouse Sun, which showed up at #64. Bingham’s recent Golden Globe Award seems to be raising his profile outside of the Americana audience that’s known about him for a couple of years now. I think the lesson to take from all this is that if you’re an artist who’s not quite right for country radio, the best thing you can do for your career is to become friends with T-Bone Burnett. And pay your dues and write songs from the heart and stay true to yourself, sure, but mostly become friends with T-Bone.

Americana Music Association Chart

While Rosanne Cash is still at #1 with The List, we have a couple of contenders that leaped into the Top 10. First up is Ray Wylie Hubbard, who moved from #44 to #11 to #4 in three weeks with his Enlightenment album. Also new to the Top 10 is the Crazy Heart soundtrack, which jumped from #26 to #8 this week. While it didn’t make the leap into the Top 10, Crows by Allison Moorer made it to #12. Among the most-added albums are new efforts from Reckless Kelly and Blue Rodeo, so the months-long album drought may be starting to come to an end and we’ll see some new names here. The new releases will have considerable work to do before they reach the heights that Cash and Robert Earl Keen did for their albums. Both The List and The Rose Hotel topped the 6,000-spin mark this week.

Freebie of the Week

I got an e-mail from a reader expressing his hope that Crazy Heart would get Stephen Bruton some notice. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of material out there – he only released five solo albums in his career, and the first two are out of print. However, thanks to Don Was‘ My Damn Channel v-log, two of the best songs from those albums are available for free download. You can watch videos of Bruton singing “Getting Over You” and “Waiting For A Long Time” and download the audio version of those tracks. It’s only two songs, but they do a good job of showing his guitar abilities that made him such an in-demand musician and the lyrics that were alternately grin-inducing or heart-breaking.

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Last.fm Top Artists

Just when you thought we’d had pretty much all of the Johnny Cash material that was available, we were treated with the news that one more album is going to be released this year. He’s doing pretty good with posthumous releases, but he’s got a way to go before he’s in the Tupac realm. For now, though, Cash had 26 listeners and was the #1 artist for the week. George Strait and Reba McEntire tied with 24 listeners along with upstart Lady Antebellum. Reba and Lady Antebellum were the only two artists in the Top 10 who gained listeners this week; perhaps new singles had something to do with it in both cases. Miranda Lambert lost 10 listeners from the previous week and ended up with 23, tied at #5 with a group that included Carrie Underwood, Alan Jackson and Dixie Chicks. Neko Case and The Avett Brothers were the leading Americana acts with 14 listeners.

Last.fm Top Tracks

Due to a glitch in the system, there isn’t a new Top Albums chart. Honestly, I wish it was the Top Tracks chart that was broken, because it’s a complete cluster this week. There are not one, but two Lady GaGa tracks in the Top 5 (“Bad Romance” and “Paparazzi,” with 7 listeners each). What’s worse, Miley Cyrus‘ “Party In The U.S.A.” had 6 listeners to rank at #14. Comparatively speaking, the batch of new Vampire Weekend tracks that had 5 listeners sound traditionalist country by comparison. The #1 track was “Need You Now” by country stalwarts Lady Antebellum, followed with 9 by Lee Ann Womack’s “Last Call.” The batch of songs with 7 listeners also included “Suds In The Bucket” by Sara Evans, “Strawberry Wine” by Deana Carter and “Temporary Home” by Carrie Underwood. The songs with 6 listeners includes “January Wedding” and “Kick Drum Heart” by The Avetts, “Travelin’ Soldier” by the Dixie Chicks, “She Won’t Be Lonely Long” by Clay Walker and “Independence Day” by Martina McBride. And believe me, it takes every one of those songs and a few more to cancel out Miley Cyrus.

Billboard Country Songs

Reba’s “Consider Me Gone” maintains its deathgrip on #1, but Dierks Bentley moves up to #2 with “I Just Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes.” What’s more, Lambert’s “White Liar” moves up to #4 from #6, and Jason Aldean’s “The Truth” moves from #7 to #6. With no new songs in the Top 10, it’s nice to see some decent songs at least moving upward. The number of lousy tunes moving through the Top 20 is a little frightening; we now have “Hillbilly Bone” by Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins up to #18. The biggest debut for the week was “This Is Our Moment” by Kenny Chesney at #50; there’s no mention of which pop star he’s dueting with there.

Billboard Country Albums

Fearless, #1. The one change is that Lady Antebellum moved up to #2, ahead of Underwood’s Play On. Darius Rucker’s Learn To Live moved from #8 to #6. Defying Gravity by Keith Urban moved up to #10 and knocked Hannah Montana’s soundtrack out of the Top 10, and praise be to him for that. The next goal of the Miley Purge is to get her out of the Top 20. Rascal Flatts‘ Unstoppable (up to #11) can keep doing its periodic sales surges all it wants if we can make it happen.

Americana Music Association Chart

The Top 5 is still essentially the same, with minor changes Rosanne Cash is still #1 with The List; it had 418 spins this week. The newest album on the charts, at #11, is Ray Wylie Hubbard’s A: Enlightenment B: Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C). Yes, the title is obnoxious, but the album proves that any cover can be improved by someone wielding a sword. See: Case, Neko. Norah Jones gains ground with The Fall, which moves from #22 to #18, but the big gainer was John Evans‘ Lollygaggin’, which jumps 16 places to #21. Evans is a Texas country/rockabilly artist and is not to be confused with the British photographer, the standup comic, the photographer or the former governor of Colorado of the same name. Other debuts of note are Alison Moorer’s Crows at #25 and the Crazy Heart soundtrack at #26. Those are both likely to shake up the Top 10 eventually.

Freebie of the Week

Dave Rawlings Machine is at #7 on the AMA charts with A Friend Of A Friend, marking the first time that he’s stepped up to sing lead vocals in his partnership with Gillian Welch. His recent appearance at the Daytrotter Sessions gives you a chance to download three of the songs: “Ruby,” “Method Acting/Cortez The Killer” and “Sweet Tooth.” Head to Daytrotter and start downloading.

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Last.fm Top Artists

Without any new music at the present, members of The 9513 group have gone back to their favorites, with Miranda Lambert and George Strait tied for #1 with 33 listeners each. While the rest of the Top 10 features some old favorites, artists like Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift (25 listeners each) both made it to #6. While they represent the best-sellers of country’s past and present, neither artist has been consistently well-represented in the group. If Swift dominates the Grammys as well as she did the rest of the awards shows, she might get some extra listeners who will finally cave in to the pressure. Just inside the Top 20, with 21 listeners, was Clay Walker, who’s got a new single after a pretty spotty decade. Perhaps the new song spurred all the ‘90s country fans here to dig out their old CDs. The Avett Brothers, whose popularity here has steadily grown, is up to 17 listeners to lead the way for all Americana artists.

Last.fm Top Albums

Once again, the #1 albums are Lambert’s Revolution and Lady Antebellum. The guys don’t fare much better than previous weeks, with only Justin Townes Earle’s Midnight At The Movies placing in the Top 10, with 12 listeners. The Dixie Chicks have three albums in the Top 10, and Swift’s Fearless (15 listeners), Carrie Underwood’s Carnival Ride (14), Sugarland’s Love On The Inside (13) and Sara Evans’ Real Fine Place (12) also made the Top 10. The back end of the charts, as always, has some interesting results — we have a fair number of Alicia Keys fans, apparently. More impressively, six people played something from Suzy Bogguss’ very underrated Aces album, which came out way back in 1991.

Last.fm Top Tracks

Four of the top five tracks are from Revolution: “Me & Your Cigarettes” (12 listeners), “Dead Flowers,” “Only Prettier” (both with 11) and “The House That Built Me” (10). The only other song with double-digit listeners was Lee Ann Womack’s “Last Call,” which also had 10. Womack has a total of 10 songs on the chart, and none of them contain the words “Dance” or “God.” This is further proof that The 9513 group and the American public at large have vastly different opinions about Womack’s recording career. The rest of the Top 10 features several new singles, including Martina McBride’s “Wrong Baby Wrong Baby Wrong” (9 listeners) and Zac Brown Band’s “Highway 20 Ride” (8). Lady Antebellum still has some momentum with “Need You Now.” It had 8 listeners, two more than its new single, “American Honey.” Another song that’s doing well from an album that’s not out is “The Weary Kind,” the theme from Crazy Heart as performed by Ryan Bingham. It’s tied with Lady GaGa’s “Paparazzi,” which is the theme to my nightmares.

Billboard Country Songs

Not much change at all this week, as the Billboard charts are still recovering from its holiday hibernation, apparently. The Top 8 are identical from last week, with Josh Turner moving from #10 to #9 with “Why Don’t We Just Dance,” and Brad Paisley moving from #12 to #10 with “American Saturday Night.” Before you get too complacent with good songs on the airwaves, bear in mind that the songs next most likely to enter the Top 10 include Jake Owen’s “Eight Second Ride” (currently #12) and Billy Currington’s “That’s How Country Boys Roll.” Owen’s song, incidentally, is now the longest-charting song that still has positive momentum. It’s been on the charts for 31 weeks now.

Billboard Country Albums

Fearless, #1. Again. Underwood’s Play On and Lady Antebellum also have the #2 and #3 spots, as per usual. Albums that did move upwards on the chart include Revolution from #9 to #6, Keith Urban’s Defying Gravity from #16 to #11 and Kenny Chesney’s Greatest Hits II from #20 to #17. Additionally, Bomshel’s Fight Like A Girl jumped from #59 all the way to #40. I’m sure the duo appreciates the anonymous person who bought two dozen copies of their album last week.

Americana Music Association Chart

This chart returns from the holiday break, pretty much as we left it. The List by Rosanne Cash is still #1, with 410 spins last week. Lyle Lovett moves up to #2, with Natural Forces picking up 353 spins, four more than former roommate Robert Earl Keen’s The Rose Hotel. The Top 10 did get a shake-up as A Friend Of A Friend by Dave Rawlings Machine moved up from #10 to #7, and Circles Around Me by Sam Bush went from #11 to #8. The real gainer for the week was The Fall by Norah Jones, which jumped all the way from #40 to #22, a gain of 32 plays over the previous week.

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Last.fm Top Artists

The members of the ever-growing The 9513 group (143 and counting) spent their New Year’s holiday by listening to a lot of the Man in Black, so we must be gearing up for a depressing 2010. Johnny Cash had 28 listeners to rank at #1, with Miranda Lambert (27 listeners) and Dixie Chicks (26) following behind. Lady Antebellum, with 22 listeners, is at #5 with Lee Ann Womack. The trio has been lurking at the bottom end of the Top 10 or just outside of it for the most part, but I suspect it’s going to be one of the top artists of 2010, considering how much of a response the lead single from the new album has gotten. Meanwhile, the artists at #10 include former #1s Sugarland, George Strait and Brad Paisley, all with 19 listeners. One week doesn’t amount to a trend, but the 2010 release schedule may shake up the group’s typical listening habits a bit. Leading the Americana singers is Holly Williams with 14 listeners – I’m assuming two country albums without airplay qualifies as “Americana.”

Last.fm Top Albums

See what I mean about Lady Antebellum? Their self-titled debut album had 17 listeners for the week, tying it with Lambert’s Revolution as the #1 album. The Dixie Chicks are #3 with Taking The Long Way, which had 16 listeners, and two of their other albums also landed in the Top 10. Womack’s Call Me Crazy was next with 15, and Taylor Swift’s Fearless tied with Carrie Underwood’s Carnival Ride, both with 14. The Americana contingent placed a few albums at #12, with 11 listeners for Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson’s Rattlin’ Bones and Justin Townes Earle’s Midnight At The Movies. Also with 11 listeners is LeAnn Rimes‘ Family, which may rank as the most inappropriate-in-hindsight album name. At the tail end of the charts, with 6 listeners, we have Old Crow Medicine Show’s Tennessee Pusher tied with Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed A Dream. If you’re someone who listened to both albums last week, kudos on your schizophrenic music collection.

Last.fm Top Tracks

There are five tracks at #1 with 9 listeners: Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now,” Lambert’s “The House That Built Me,” Reba McEntire’s “Consider Me Gone,” “Dixie Chicks’ “Wide Open Spaces” and “Cowboy Take Me Away.” Lady A, the Chicks and Reba have the #6 songs as well, with “I Run To You,” “Goodbye Earl” and “Maggie Creek Road,” respectively. As further proof that the men of country music have completely dropped the ball, there isn’t a single track in the Top 10 (17 songs) with a male solo performance. The see-saw between male dominance and female dominance has definitely tipped heavily in one direction. If the Hat Act and Bare Navel eras are any indication, it could stay that way for a few years.

Billboard Country Songs

Now that McEntire has a #1, she’s not willing to let go. “Consider Me Gone” spends a second week at #1, with “Need you Now” still at #2 and Dierks Bentley’s “I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes” moving up to #3. Darius Rucker’s “History In The Making” moves up a couple spots to #8, and Josh Turner enters the Top 10 with “Why Don’t We Just Dance.” The most movement came from “Temporary Home” by Underwood, which moves to #19, and “Highway 20 Ride” by Zac Brown Band, which moves to #26. The biggest non-holiday debut goes to Rascal Flatts with “Unstoppable” at #56 – what a way to start a new year.

Billboard Country Albums

Fearless is Still #1. Though for once, the sales gainer went to a different album, in this case, The Foundation by Zac Brown Band at #5. Perhaps “Highway 20 Ride” is giving it a justifiably strong sales resurgence. Furthermore, Revolution sneaks back into the Top 10 at #9, putting Miranda Lambert ahead of the blasted Hannah Montana soundtrack that refuses to go away. The purchasing power of the teenage female demographic is downright frightening. God help us all if Taylor Lautner decides to release a country album. Without any debut albums this week, the movement on the charts comes courtesy of current albums like Toby Keith’s American Ride, moving four spots to #12, and Strait’s Twang, which moves up five to #13.

Freebie of the Week

The Americana Music Association is apparently taking a couple weeks off with its chart, so here’s some free stuff from one of the perennial Top 10 bands, The Band of Heathens. They have a deal on their Web site where you can send a free song to as many friends as you like. There are multiple tracks available from the Band’s two studio albums, as well as some live cuts. I’m not suggesting that you e-mail yourself almost two dozen free songs, but if you were to do that and liked them so much that you decided to buy their albums, they probably wouldn’t mind that. Try “Cornbread,” “Jackson Station” and “L.A. County Blues,” for starters.

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Last.fm Top Artists

The 9513 group members apparently worked music into their holiday celebrations somehow, as the numbers don’t show any kind of a drop from previous weeks. Brad Paisley closes out the year at #1 with 31 listeners. Far behind, with 26, were Trisha Yearwood and Miranda Lambert at #2. Rascal Flatts makes a rare Top 10 appearance at #9 with 21 listeners – a disturbing trend that hopefully will not continue into the next decade. Faith Hill also showed up at #10 with 20 listeners. For anyone who thinks that your favorite young singer is going to have a long and productive career with gobs of #1 hits and awards, consider Faith Hill for a moment. She started the 2000s as one of the hottest things in music, with success in both the pop and country music worlds. She ended the decade without a non-Christmas hit song in four years and is now mostly known as the guardian of her husband’s crotch from strange and overenthusiastic fans.

Last.fm Top Albums

The blondes continue to rule the charts, as Lambert, Carrie Underwood and Sugarland all have two albums in the Top 10, with Kellie Pickler and Taylor Swift have one each. Revolution had 16 listeners, followed by Carnival Ride (15), Fearless (14), Play On (13) and Love On The Inside (12).Paisley’s American Saturday Night (11) and Jamey Johnson’s That Lonesome Song (10) were the only albums from male artists to make the Top10. I’m definitely ready for the next big album release that breathes some new life into this chart. Just outside the Top 10, with 9 listeners, we have Zac Brown Band’s The Foundation, Martina McBride’s Shine and Justin Townes Earle’s Midnight At The Movies. So with the addition of a couple more eclectic listeners, The 9513’s charts could look much different.

Last.fm Top Tracks

Revolution got some serious play last week, as the top eight songs were all from that album. “White Liar” led the way with 14 listeners, but “The House That Built Me” (11), “Dead Flowers” (11) and “Only Prettier” (10) also did well. “Rattlin’ Bones” from Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson (7 listeners) helped break up the monotony, as did “Wrapped” by George Strait, “Mama” by Holly Williams and “Independence Day” by McBride. “And It Spread” by The Avett Brothers had 6 listeners, and it’s great to see people listening to more than just the title track of the new album. A handful of Christmas tunes did pretty well, with Pickler’s version of “Santa Baby” leading with 6 listeners, ahead of McBride’s “O Holy Night” and Darius Rucker’s “Candy Cane Christmas,” among others.

Billboard Country Songs

Reba McEntire finally beat down Lady Antebellum and got “Consider Me Gone” to #1, the first time she’s managed that since “Somebody” in 2004. Tim McGraw’s “Southern Voice” entered the Top 5 at #5, and “White Liar” moved up a couple notches to #6. This all came at the expense of David Nail’s “Red Light,” which was on the charts for an incredible 43 weeks and peaked last week at #7. It moved back to #9 this week, so Nail finally gets to release his follow-up single. Another song moving the wrong way was “Backwoods” from Justin Moore, which dropped a spot at #28. Hopefully, the country boy/redneck pride anthem trend has run its course. “Temporary Home” by Underwood showed the most movement of anything on the chart, moving from #26 to #21. After “Need You Now” dominated the singles chart for so long, Lady Antebellum looks to repeat its success with “American Honey,” which debuted at #47.

Billboard Country Albums

Fearless is still #1, and was the sales gainer for the week again. This can only mean that the “Pure Extreme Platinum” version is in the works. There was some movement in the Top 10 this week, as The Foundation rose to #5 and Wide Open to #6, as Zac Brown and Jason Aldean continue to strike a blow for big guys and poseurs, respectively. The biggest debut of the week was Phil Vassar’s “Traveling Circus,” which made it to #29. If nothing else, it has the most interesting album cover on the charts, so maybe it will get some sales from breaking up the row after row of godawful bland album covers that dominate the country section of record stores.

Freebie of the Week

California-based singer Grant Langston must love his fans, as he’s got quite a bit of free music available. In case you’d missed the notices in The 9513’s daily news, his new album, Stand Up Man, is available as a free download. It’s well worth it to get songs like “Shiner Bock and Vicodin,” “The King of Sunset Hills” and “I Give Up.” He’s also got 14 live songs available at Last.fm. Pick up your copies of “Divorce Number One,” “Drunken Prince Charming” and “Burt Reynolds Movie Brawl” among others at Last.fm.

To see this week’s charts and join our group, head to http://www.last.fm/group/The+9513.

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