Post Holiday Sales Drag Totals
Let’s view our SoundScan update this week from 10,000 feet and then drill down into a few areas for a closer look. The addition of the Hannah Montana soundtrack to the country albums chart, plus recent releases from Rascal Flatts, Jason Aldean and Keith Urban worked wonders to prop what earlier in the year was a soggy Y/Y sales comparison. For the week ended 5/17/09, country album sales are down a mere 3.9%. This compares quite favorably with the overall music business which is down 13%. (The controversial addition of the Disney star’s CD, which now accounts for 5.6% of 2009 country album sales, greatly helped improve country’s tally.)
Just released impact titles in the marketplace include a Greatest Hits outing from Kenny Chesney and a hip-hop offering from Eminem both hoping to take advantage of the long holiday weekend’s extra shopping time. Predictions based upon first day sales, according to insiders place Chesney in the mid-80s range and the gangsta at a whopping 600k+.
Counting Country
Not unexpectedly, post Mother’s Day country sales dropped off, about 18% wk/wk despite a debut from Steve Earle which scanned 17,839 units.
Digital consumer behavior is fast becoming a key observation area. Despite recent CMA research which finds that about 50% of the rabid countryphile core do not have Internet at home, country digital CD sales have grown Y/Y by a significant 62% hitting about 1.85 million units YTD. Last year, fans purchased 6.9% of the total country albums sold in digital format. This year that percentage has mushroomed to 11.6%.
In the digital track department leading country downloads included—Miley Cyrus “Climb” (73,754 units); Taylor Swift “You Belong…” (36,213); Miley Cyrus “HoeDown Throwdown” (34,724); Zac Brown Band “Whatever It Is” (34,423); and Brad Paisley “Then” 30,257.
Key: Y/Y—year over year; wk./wk.—week over week; YTD—year-to-date.
Grammy-winning artist Steve Wariner will perform a benefit concert for the Chet Atkins Music Education Fund on Tuesday, July 7, at 7:00 PM/CT at the Loveless Barn at the Loveless Cafe. The concert will feature songs from Wariner’s forthcoming CD, Steve Wariner, c.g.p., My Tribute to Chet Atkins, as well as some of his greatest hits. All proceeds from the concert and auction will benefit the Chet Atkins Music Education Fund, which Atkins established in 1997 to ensure that there are always funds available to encourage promising students as they pursue musical training. The fund supports programs that provide the earliest music education for young people in Middle Tennessee and added enrichment for those wishing to pursue music as a career to support youth music education in the Nashville area. For more information click 
On May 26, the Bluebird Cafe will host the Miller Harris Foundation Benefit Concert on May 26. The legendary venue will present two shows to benefit the Foundation, a private nonprofit organization established in 2002 by family and friends of Miller Harris, who died tragically from an asthmatic attack in September of 1999 while preparing for a golf outing with friends at the age of twenty-five. The Foundation has been set up to promote and support scholarships and organizations in Harris’ name. The benefit will consist of two shows. The 6:00 PM show will feature songwriters Lee Brice, Jerrod Niemann, Rob Hatch, Lance Miller and Eric Landis. At 9:00 PM, Jason Sellers, Thom Shepard, Halfway to Hazard, Luke Bryan and Dallas Davidson will perform in-the-round. For more information or to purchase tickets, click 
The Americana Music Association announced the nominees for the trade organization’s 2009 Honors and Awards ceremony today (5/20), at its annual celebration at BMI Nashville. The show, in its eighth year, will be held September 17 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. Legendary Mandolin virtuoso Sam Bush, joined by rising star Phoebe Hunt, member of the Belleville Outfit, read the list of award candidates to a crowd of industry executives, artists and tastemakers.
650 WSM AM will celebrate Memorial Day by airing a This Is My America Special celebrating the writers and performers from This Is My America, including Billy Dean, Jenny Gill, J Fred Knobloch and Sarah Majors. An epic concept album, This Is My America is a three-disc set of original material that captures the spirit of America and chronologically recounts its history over 64 tracks. The album will be aired throughout the three-day weekend (May 23-25). Full interviews with Gill and Majors can be heard Thursday at 9:00 AM and with Knobloch on Friday at 9:00 AM. 58 of America’s finest singers and songwriters (Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, Billy Dean, Kathy Mattea, Mark O’Connor, Beth Nielsen Chapman, the Nashville Symphony and the Fisk Jubilee Singers, among others) contribute to this one-of-a-kind release. You can find more information 
Curb artist Jo Dee Messina and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean lead over 800 runners on Saturday (5/16), in the rain-soaked inaugural Music Row Road Race benefiting the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The race and Messina’s headline concert at the Wildhorse Saloon that same evening raised $100,000 for the Hospital. Messina treated fans at a packed Wildhorse Saloon to a taste of her Music Room Series Tour, which features a stark stage with a grand piano and three of her musicians performing acoustically. She performed for two hours, took requests and answered questions from the audience. Messina is back on the road with her full band and will return to Nashville for her River Stages performance on June 13 and fan club party the following day during CMA Music Festival.
Duff Berschback has been promoted to VP of Business Affairs at Sony/ATV Nashville. Berschback joined Sony/ATV Nashville in January 2007 as Senior Director of Business Affairs after six years as an entertainment attorney with his own Nashville-based private practice. Bershback will report directly to Sony/ATV Nashville’s President/CEO, Troy Tomlinson, and is responsible for all contract negotiations, catalog acquisitions, and copyright infringement litigation. “Duff has proven to be a welcome addition to our Nashville team,” Tomlinson said. “His professionalism, work ethic and love of songwriters made this advancement obvious.”
Holly Williams‘ Mercury Nashville debut, Here With Me, is scheduled for release June 16. Williams, the granddaughter of Hank Williams, Sr. and daughter of Hank, Jr., penned the majority of the album’s 11 tracks and co-produced with Justin Niebank and Tony Brown. Current single, “Mama,” was written for her mom as a Mother’s Day gift. Williams will take the Opry stage Thursday, May 21 at 7:15 PM/CT for Opry Country Classics’ “Families in Country Music” night, where she will perform hits by her father and her grandfather. In addition, she recently taped a stripped down version of some of the album’s tracks for CMT’s 330 Sessions, which will premiere closer to the album’s release. Here With Me is also profiled in Billboard‘s current “Summer Preview” issue, and USA Today named leadoff single “Keep The Change” as their “Pick of the Week.” In addition, Williams will be featured in Elle magazine’s July “Women In Music” issue and is opening up her home to People magazine this week for an exclusive photo shoot. You can find out more and listen to “Mama”