Lady Antebellum notches biggest week of sales ever
Lady Antebellum won single of the year for “I Run to You” and vocal group of year at last week’s CMA Awards. (Associated Press photos)
Country Music Association Vocal Group of the Year Lady Antebellum are enjoying their biggest sales week ever – even after an astounding 83 weeks on the Billboard country albums chart.
The group sold 45,228 albums this week (a 130 percent increase from last week) beating their self-titled platinum-selling debut album street week number of 43,384 albums sold.
After the group’s passionate CMA Awards performance of “Need You Now,” their current smash and title track of their forthcoming album, the single shot straight to the top of the all-genre digital charts at iTunes and Amazon Mp3 and is Verizon’s No. 1-selling country ringback and ringtone (No. 3 ringtone and No. 2 ringback overall).
The good news kept rolling in for the country music trio when the RIAA certified their debut single “Love Don’t Live Here” and their current smash “Need You Now” gold this week. In addition, “Need You Now” is sitting at the top of both the Billboard and Mediabase/Country Aircheck charts and is spending its sixth consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard Canada chart.
Lady Antebellum is gearing up for the release of their sophomore album “Need You Now” on Jan. 26. They will finish up a few remaining tour dates through the end of the year and then join megastar Tim McGraw on his “Southern Voice” tour at the beginning of next year.
For more information, go to www.ladyantebellum.com.
-BAM
Photo gallery: 2009 CMA Awards red carpet
Carrie Underwood smiles on the CMA Awards red carpet. (Associated Press photos)
Several of country music’s biggest stars donned their sparkling best to walk the carpet at Wednesday night’s CMA Awards at the Sommet Center in Nashville, Tenn. Check out these Associated Press photos of some of the music luminaries.
Carrie Underwood wore sparkling silver for the first of her many gowns for the evening.
Duet partners Chris Daughtry and Oklahoma native Vince Gill walked the red carpet together.
Tishomingo resident Miranda Lambert went with a long black gown for the red carpet and a short white dress for her performance.
Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles picked a black red carpet gown, too.
Oklahoma native Reba McEntire also went with basic black.
Keith Urban and his movie-star wife Nicole Kidman get affectionate on the red carpet.
See more photos after the break.
Photo gallery: More from the 2009 CMA Awards
Teen star Taylor Swift took home four awards, including entertainer of the year, at Wednesday night’s CMA Awards. (Associated Press photos)
The Country Music Association’s 43rd Annual CMA Awards took place Wednesday night at Nashville’s Sommet Center. It was a huge night for 19-year-old starlet Taylor Swift, who won four trophies, including entertainer of the year, to the outrage of many country purists and the delight of her legions of fans.
Here are some of the memorable moments from the awards show. All photos are from the Associated Press.
Martina McBride and George Strait sing “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” as a tribute to recently inducted Country Music Hall of Famer Barbara Mandrell.
Barbara Mandrell makes a speech at the awards show.
Darius Rucker accepts the best new artist award.
Sugarland performs the ballad “Keep You.”
Tim McGraw’s performance was his first at the CMA Awards in four years.
See more photos after the break.
Photo gallery: Carrie Underwood performs “Cowboy Casanova” at the 2009 CMA Awards
Carrie Underwood and a bevy of beautiful backup dancers perform “Cowboy Casanova” at the Country Music Association’s 43rd Annual CMA Awards Wednesday night in Nashville. (Associated Press photos)
Along with co-hosting Wednesday night’s CMA Awards, Checotah native Carrie Underwood put in one of the showstopping performances of the night with her sexy rendition of her new No. 1 hit “Cowboy Casanova.” Check out these sexy Associated Press photos of Underwood singing and strutting her stuff in an outrageous outfit.
-BAM
Photo gallery: Oklahomans at the 2009 CMA Awards
For the second year, Brad Paisley and Checotah native Carrie Underwood co-hosted the CMA Awards at the Sommet Center in Nashville, Tenn. (Associated Press photos)
The Country Music Association’s 43rd Annual CMA Awards took place Wednesday night at Nashville’s Sommet Center. It was a huge night for 19-year-old starlet Taylor Swift, who won four trophies, including entertainer of the year, to the outrage of many country purists and the delights of her legions of fans.
Although Oklahoma’s stars went home winless, they represented our state quite well, with several of them performing and Checotah native Carrie Underwood c0-hosting the show. Check out these Associated Press photos of Okies in action at the CMAs; I’ll put pictures of Underwood’s sexy performance of her new hit “Cowboy Casanova” in the next blog post.
Soon-to-split duo Brooks & Dunn (which features former Tulsan Ronnie Dunn, center) asked ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons, right, to join them for their final CMA Awards performance.
Oklahoma native Vince Gill performs “Tennessee Line” with rock band Daughtry.
Reba McEntire performs her latest hit, “Consider Me Gone.”
Tishomingo resident Miranda Lambert rocks the show with “White Liar.”
Carrie Underwood does her co-hosting duties.
-BAM
Darius Rucker follows CMA Awards win with parent-teacher conference, tonight’s Tulsa show
Darius Rucker accepts the best new artist of the year award at the 43rd Annual Country Music Awards Wednesday night in Nashville, Tenn. He will perform tonight at Tulsa’s Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino. (Associated Press photo)
Darius Rucker became the first black singer to win new artist of the year at Wednesday’s CMA Awards, joining Charley Pride as the only African-Americans to win major individual awards from the Country Music Association.
When I spoke with Rucker in a recent phone interview, he said his plans for after the CMA Awards would remain virtually the same regardless of whether he won or lost. He went into the show with two nominations; the male vocalist of the year trophy went to Brad Paisley.
“If I win, I’m gonna go out that night with my wife and some of our friends and go to a couple of parties and then I’m gonna get up and be on the 6 o’clock flight to go to my 14-year-old daughter’s school teacher’s conference she’s got. If I lose, I’m gonna go out with my wife and some friends and I’m gonna get up at 6 o’clock and go to my daughter’s teacher’s conference. Either way, I’ll be at that teacher’s conference,” he said.
The former Hootie & the Blowfish frontman told me he wasn’t sure until the nominations were announced that he could even compete in the best new artist category after his previous band’s 1990s success. And he didn’t think he would win anyway, saying he thought hot country act the Zac Brown Band had the new artist title all wrapped up.
Rucker, whose first country album, last year’s “Learn to Live,” has sold more than 1 million copies, took the CMA Awards stage Wednesday night to hearty cheers from the crowd and shouted, “What a year!”
“First of all, to the fans, thank y’all for accepting me,” he said. “And I think most importantly, to country radio, you took a chance on a pop singer from Charleston, S.C. Thank you so much for that!”
Rucker told me he is hard at work on his second country album, which he plans to release next year. He was hoping to start recording later this month or in December. When we spoke, he said he had just written a song a few days earlier with Paisley.
“We wrote a song that we’re going to do as a duet on my record that’s hilarious. That guy — hilarious. Too funny, really too funny. I mean, love hanging out with him,” Rucker said.
Rucker will perform at 7 tonight Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino in Tulsa. For more information, call (918) 699-7667 or go to www.milliondollarelm.com/event-center.
-BAM
Darius Rucker performing tonight in Tulsa, fresh off CMA Awards win
Country singer Darius Rucker poses for pictures in the press room after winning the best new award at Wednesdayt night’s 43rd Annual CMA Awards in Nashville, Tenn. Rucker will perform in concert tonight at Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino in Tulsa. (Associated Press photo)
A version of this story appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country give warm welcome to musician at CMA Awards
Darius Rucker to perform tonight in Tulsa
Singer/songwriter/guitarist Darius Rucker still may be best known as the front man of 1990s pop sensations Hootie & the Blowfish.
But as one of his new hits goes, “It Won’t Be Like This for Long,” if his country career keeps booming.
After all, Rucker’s first country record, 2008’s “Learn to Live,” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart and has already sold more than 1 million copies. And the album’s first three singles — the passionate ode to lost love “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It,” the slice-of-life ballad “It Won’t Be Like This for Long” and the breezy toe-tapper “Alright” — topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs list.
“I’ve talked about this record for years, probably since ‘86,” Rucker said in a phone interview from Tacoma, Wash. “There were just certain things I wanted to do, certain records I wanted to make. I was making my rock ‘n’ roll records, I wanted to make an R&B record, and I wanted to make country records. I wanted to be Radney Foster, Al Green and Michael Stipe.”
The Charleston, S.C., native will play a solo show at 7 tonight at Tulsa’s Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino. The concert comes just two days after he won new artist of the year at the 43rd Annual CMA Awards in Nashville, Tenn., where he also was nominated for male vocalist of the year.
“I didn’t know I could be nominated for new artist so I was really surprised,” said Rucker, who won a 1996 Grammy for best new artist as part of Hootie & the Blowfish.
Even before he won the award, Rucker was grateful at the warm welcome he has received from the country community. During the show, he thanked country fans and radio stations who “took a chance on a pop singer from Charleston, S.C. God bless y’all for that.”
And he won’t soon forget the shock when Lee Ann Womack listed him along with Kenny Chesney, George Strait, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban as a male vocalist nominee.
“I’m standing up there and she says my name and the ‘Sesame Street’ song — ‘One of these things is not like the other’ — that comes into my head,” he said with a laugh.
“And the African-American thing had nothing to do with it. It was these are four superstars in country music. Superstars. … There’s no one in music bigger than George Strait. No one. And there’s nobody selling out more places than Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley. And they’re gonna throw me in there.”
While Rucker is experiencing more country music success than any other black singer since Charley Pride, it isn’t the first time he has changed the face of a genre. And the honey-voiced baritone has sold out his share of arenas.
He and three friends — all white — started Hootie & the Blowfish in 1986 at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. The band’s 1994 major-label debut “Cracked Rear View” spun off three smash hits in “Hold My Hand,” “Only Wanna Be With You” and “Let Her Cry” and sold more than 16 million copies. The pop-rock quartet released four more albums, though none were able to tap the white-hot success of their debut. When the band decided a few years ago to take a break, Rucker set out to make his long-awaited country album.
“Country music and bluegrass was such a huge part of us as a band, from New Grass Revival and Lyle Lovett and Radney and Nanci Griffith. You know, these were people that we listened to every day. I mean, when we sat down to play, we played bluegrass or country,” he said.
“The last two or three Hootie records, in the meetings to start the records, I’d say, ‘Hey, let’s do the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band thing and just do country records.’ And you know, they didn’t want to do it, and I was cool with that. But they knew as soon as the first chance I got, I was gonna do it.”
When Capitol Nashville offered him a record deal, he made “Learn to Live” on a modest budget and drove to radio stations around the nation to promote it. He knew his Hootie history might prove a liability with pop artists such as Jessica Simpson, Jewel and Bon Jovi also crossing over to the country side.
“I think it was a benefit because it got me into a lot of program directors’ offices that might’ve not seen me otherwise. I mean, it was a detriment from the fact that just the whole pop invasion was going on at that time. I had to come out with something that was really gonna hit, or I was gonna be thrown by the wayside,” he said.
He already is working the follow-up to “Learn to Live” and plans to make country music for the foreseeable future. But fans can expect to hear him play not just his new hits but also a few songs from his Hootie days tonight.
“I want people leaving our show going, ‘Man, I want to see that again,’” he said.
In concert
Darius Rucker
When: 7 tonight.
Where: Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino’s Osage Event Center, 951 W 36 St. N, Tulsa.
Information: (918) 699-7667 or www.milliondollarelm.com/event-center.
-BAM
