The 9513 Last.fm Chart Update (8-23-09)

Even with a highly anticipated new album, Reba McEntire couldn’t manage to top the perennial 1-2 combo of George Strait (28 listeners) and Sugarland (24) on the Top Artists charts this week. Her 21 listeners for the week are fairly impressive, but when one of the biggest stars in country music in the last 30 years releases a new CD, you’d expect a little bit more than third place.

Maybe too many years spent tending to her acting career or dueting with Kelly Clarkson and Justin Timberlake has moved McEntire into the back of her fans’ minds. Her last solo album with original material was in 2003, and her single releases have been pretty sporadic. Her last solo Top 10 singles were in 2004, and if it weren’t for Brooks & Dunn and a combination of Kenny Chesney and Skip Ewing, she really wouldn’t have been heard on the radio at all last year. Plenty of new country stars have stepped up in McEntire’s absence, including a couple of the others in the Top 10 – Miranda Lambert (20), Lady Antebellum (19) – to say nothing about the barrage of pop-country women who weren’t born when McEntire’s first album was released. She’s built herself into an entertainment mogul that would impress even Dolly Parton, but has she sacrificed her radio presence in the process?

Keep On Loving You, McEntire’s new album, had 10 listeners, putting it at #10 in the Top Albums chart, alongside Hayes Carll’s Trouble In Mind, Carrie Underwood’s Some Hearts and Keith Urban’s Defying Gravity. The top album was Call Me Crazy from Lee Ann Womack, with 13 listeners. Twelve people listened to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend by Lambert, Fly by the Dixie Chicks, Love On The Inside by Sugarland and It Just Comes Natural by Strait. The list of albums with 7 listeners is fairly impressive and includes Justin Townes Earle’s two releases, Here With Me by Holly Williams, Trace by Sun Volt and Mountain Soul by Patty Loveless.

McEntire and Strait dominated the Top Tracks chart, thanks to their new releases. The top track was McEntire’s “Strange,” with 13 listeners. So Reba fans, if you want her higher up on the Top Album charts, check your artist and album data on your mp3s. Twelve of the top 19 tracks were Reba songs, with Strait getting four of his own. The only songs from other singers in the Top 19 were Womack’s “Last Call” (11 listeners), Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” (8) and David Nail’s “Red Light (8).

Freebie of the Week: When I was first discovering the alt-country scene, one of the first bands I heard was The Hangdogs, courtesy of a CD sampler from the ill-fated and much-missed (by me anyway) New Country Magazine. The Hangdogs were a band from New York and never really hit the big time, or even the small time. But they did put out some solid albums before they went their separate ways, and they did make the greatest ode to Janeane Garofalo ever recorded. Their Web site mentions a few reunion shows, and there are a few free rare and live songs available. The best of the freebies is “Flatlands,” which typifies the ‘Dogs approach to country music: dark, occasionally violent and with some memorable guitar playing. Their songs aren’t for the faint of heart or right-leaning in the political spectrum, but if you’re not happy with the current country music scene, their song “Drink Yourself To Death” may be worth tracking down.

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

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