Random Music Row Ramblings

Sometimes, things befuddle me. Last week's country soundscan chart completely befuddles me.

I remember having a conversation with someone at Big Machine during GRS when they announced Garth's street date. "He's sneaking in and putting his album out the week BEFORE hers?" I asked. "What does that do to marital harmony if he's still #1 the week hers comes out and she comes in second?" I was really only half joking, but thinking how cool it would be to have Mr. and Mrs. Brooks at the top of the chart.

After all, Jasper County debuted #1. 117,000 copies sold the first week. With the power of the Big Machine behind it, no reason to think the new album wouldn't do those kind of numbers.

I've never been a die hard Trisha fan. Never been a die hard fan of any female, really. There are songs of hers that I just love. "The Song Remembers When" is probably one of my Top 10 Favorite Country Songs EVER. I think she's got an amazing voice. She rocks as a person. But I don't think I've ever went out and bought an album.

However, this new album, Heaven, Heartache & The Power of Love, is freakin' AWESOME. Really great material. She's been all over the place promoting it... TV... Radio.... online. She crossed the picket lines to co-host on The View. Promote, promote, promote!

So when last week's sales numbers came out, I was befuddled. Stunned, really. Mr. Brooks was #1 all right. But Mrs. Brooks... #10? And barely that, just 350 copies ahead of Josh Turner. What. The. Hell.

ll the radio specials she did on the CD... those kind of sales on that kind of exposure makes you think people didn't like it. Kind of the way you can look at the Post-CMA sales numbers and correlate bad performances with sales drops and good performances with sales increases. How could people NOT like this album? Are my tastes that wacked?

I've seen some wrong sales totals posted, by the way. (Although not quite as bad as the people who tried to say they had GB album sales numbers a day early that were TOTALLY offbase.) Official Soundscan tally for the week was 33,113. That's 16k behind album #9 - the Alison Krauss / Robert Plant project that's getting no airplay or promotion, in it's 4th week on the chart.

Just for a little mind blowing comparison... Trisha's Greatest Hits Cd, which MCA released earlier this year that wasn't promoted at ALL... sold 22k the first week. It's over 62k scanned to date, without any effort.

I haven't blogged about this sooner because I keep expecting that any minute we'd get a press release and find out that like... Walmart forgot to report their numbers. Best Buy credited Trisha's numbers to Garth. Semis worth of albums were stuck in the Rockies and didn't make it to store shelves. SOMETHING.

But yet. Nothing.

Another thing that baffles me is how a certain website can bombard people with a zillion emails about buying the album in the days leading up to the release, and then prohibit the members from posting anything about how many albums were actually sold. So if the numbers shock you, by all means you are welcome to post here.

And while I'm being baffled and befuddled (I really need to rename this post) let's talk Greatest Hits projects, shall we? There's a plethora of them all of a sudden.

Sara Evans... Keith Urban... Faith... Garth... Trisha... and oh yeah. King George.

Now I know he's the King. But all of ya'll who give Garth a rash and a crap about releasing another GH project 13 years after his last one... let's look at this new CD 22 More Hits. Shall we?

Something about the title 22 "More" Hits lead me to think it was hits that had come along since his last Greatest Hits project, which was that 50 #1's a couple years back. Wasn't sure how he'd had 22 of them in that time span, but sometimes people get creative. He's had some duets and things from other albums. Then... I saw the track listing.

"Amarillo By Morning" -- didn't that come out in 1983? Drinkin' Champagne? And how does his 22 song CD compare in price to a 34 song 2 cd and 33 track DVD for $11.88? At Walmart, you get George's 12 less songs and 34 less videos for $2 less than Garth. Really... Garth fans need to quit yer whinin'. Think of how the Strait fans feel. Poor guys can't even get new album art.

And yet... 80, 186 copies of 22 More Hits were scanned the first week.

Baffling.

One more late night rambling... I don't know when the next Garth single is officially going to be released, but Highway 16 is going to start playing it in the next couple of days. I haven't heard that it's been announced anywhere, so feel free to make a prediction on which one you think it will be. (Unless you roomed with me in Kansas City, in which case you are disqualified.) It's gone largely unnoticed, but MTAM has been #1 on the Music Row chart (smaller, secondary markets) for the past FIVE weeks.

Meanwhile, "Heaven, Heartache & The Power of Love" is the #1 song on Highway 16 this week.