Понедельник 23 Мар 2009, 19:56

The American Idolization of The 9513 is beginning. While Brad Paisley managed to snag the top spot on the artists' chart this week with 18 listeners, Carrie Underwood was right behind him with 17 listeners. How did she do it? Well, her duet with Randy Travis, I Told You So was premiered on American Idol and became the second-most popular track with 8 plays, and her take on the country standard Home Sweet Home, the new Am-Idol farewell song, had 6 listeners. Among the top tracks for the week were Blame It On Your Heart and Wild Angels, which were featured on Idol's country night last week. Were our members looking for the better versions of those songs after hearing them Idolized? Maybe. Actually, Allison Iraheta's version of Patty's song was pretty good. Oddly, two people listened to Ring Of Fire by Adam Lambert, and no one listened to Johnny Cash's version.

Elsewhere on the charts, the Top 20 doesn't have a ton of surprises. A couple days with my fiancee's copy of Alan Jackson's Greatest Hits has given me a new appreciation for him, so it's nice to see him sitting at #4 on the charts, along with George Strait.

Carrie's Some Hearts was tied for top album with Taylor Swift's Fearless, both with 11 listeners. Love On The Inside by Sugarland had 10 listeners; personally, I'd trade Sugarland's entire back catalog for one Wilco song (see here), but I'm in the minority there.

Sugarland, Carrie and Taylor absolutely dominated the singles chart this week. Brad Paisley's Letter To Me snuck into the Top 10 with 6 listeners, and Gloriana had the second-most listened-to track with Wild At Heart. It was the free song of the week from iTunes, in case you're wondering where that came from. Apparently no one ever checks out the equally free Discovery Download of the week, because that was Eli Young Band's When It Rains, which didn't chart at all. It could also be the fact that the song's about 5 years old, and everyone who likes it already has heard it plenty of times.

So for everyone who likes free stuff, check this out. The Southern Tenant Folk Union has three free songs available on LastFM. The band, with a really unfortunate acronym of STFU, are a British bluegrass/folk (folkgrass?) band led by banjo player Pat McGarvey. If you're a fan of Old Crow Medicine Show, they're worth a listen. I'm partial to The Green Eyed Girl (From Louisville). My favorite one from them, Never Got The Best Of Me can be obtained free from their Web site, www.southerntenantfolkunion.com. (Thanks to group member sevinfo for the tip).

Thanks for reading. Head over to The 9513 (www.the9513.com) and read reviews of the new Jason Aldean and Willie Nelson albums or talk about your favorite decade of country music.