*Garth Brooks visited with country radio during GRS (Garth Radio Seminar), a recent event held in Nashville. Pictured above (l-r): Frank Seres, WSM-FM/Nashville MD; Garth; Kevin King, WSM-FM/Nashville PD.
THIS WEEK'S HIGHLIGHTS
*Garth Brooks Makes History: First Artist To Debut At #1 On Country Singles Chart
*Trisha Yearwood Goes Top 30 - Over 100 Reporting Stations On Board
*Jack Ingram Single Posts More Research Growth; Spends 100th Consecutive Week On Charts
*Going For Adds Now: Taylor Swift "Our Song" - Top 5 Most Added A Week Early
ARTIST NEWSFLASH
*The top-selling solo artist of the 20th century (RIAA) has re-written the record books once again. With his new single, "More Than a Memory" (Pearl Records/Big Machine), Garth Brooks has become the first artist in history to debut at #1 on the Billboard Country Singles chart, making him the highest Country debut leader of all time. Brooks' first single from his upcoming The Ultimate Hits collection, in stores 11/6, earned 36.3 million impressions in its first week and shattered a one-day audience record of over 11 million impressions on its arrival day at Country Radio. On August 18th, Garth and Big Machine Records President/CEO Scott Borchetta announced a unique arrangement for Big Machine Records to exclusively promote and market his upcoming singles to Country Radio. Borchetta says, "The opportunity and the honor to represent the greatest that our industry has ever seen is one that I could not pass up. To experience his musical genius, desire and passion first-hand is extraordinary. We came up with a plan to set up this incredible new music at radio and he took it to another level - truly magical. Radio responded with open arms and enormous excitement and the result is... historical." "More Than A Memory" becomes Brooks' 27th #1 single, and concurrently, his 38th Top 10 hit.
*GOLDEN GIRL: Congrats to Taylor Swift who received two gold certifications this week! The 17-year-old singer-songwriter's single "Teardrops On My Guitar" was honored with an RIAA Digital Gold Single award for sales of more than 500,000 units; this marks Taylor's second consecutive Digital Gold award, the first being awarded for "Tim McGraw" earlier this year. Simultaneously, her self-titled debut album was certified Gold in Canada. North of the border a gold award is given to any album scanning more than 50,000 units. Taylor is currently in Canada touring with Brad Paisley's Bonfires & Amplifiers Tour. Of her recent successes, Taylor is both humbled and excited by the embrace from fans and the industry: "I didn't expect this at all, and I think that's the sweetest thing," notes the CMA Horizon Award nominee. "I take moments to reflect on how lucky I am, but I think it's really important to stay excited about accomplishing things. I still scream when I hear my song on the radio. I think being excited is such a great thing, because people around you take their signals from the energy you put out. If it's positive energy, the people around you will be positive."
*In what has to be the fastest coordinated #1 party ever (just four days after debuting at the chart's pinnacle), Garth Brooks celebrated the #1 success of "More Than A Memory" Friday in Nashville with the song's three writers--Billy Montana, Lee Brice and Kyle Jacobs. For Garth, in spite of the history-making success, it all comes back to the music. "What I love is that it is all about the song," noted Garth during a press round-robin at the Country Music Hall Of Fame & Museum. "Everyone's been very sweet but the thing that I keep hearing all the time is 'the song, the song, the song'. And I'm hearing a ton about the recording of the song...the sound of it. This is the first one we've never (recorded) to tape simply because you can't buy tape anymore. But other than that, it was recorded like everything else we've ever done, with the same players. It was just a magic moment."
*Jack Ingram is heading out this fall on Dierks Bentley's Throttle Wide Open Tour which kicks off October 4th in Rome, GA, and for Jack, he is looking forward to playing in front of Dierks' audience. "From what I know about Dierks and his attitude towards music, I feel like we are going to hit a lot of common ground for the fans out there. I know he has come down to Texas a lot and is a fan of the stuff that has gone on down there through the years. I am really looking forward to kicking this thing off," notes Jack. "I have been lucky to tour with people I really respect and Dierks is certainly one of them. It's gonna be a great tour!" For more from Jack, check out his new CMT.com blog here.
*RANDOM NOTES:
The chart week ending Sunday, August 26th marks a milestone for Jack Ingram: the Houston-native has posted 100 consecutive weeks on the country radio singles charts. A Jack Ingram single has resided on the published Billboard/R&R or Mediabase country singles charts every week since October 3, 2005...
AOL has named Taylor Swift the Hottest Female Artist in country music. Ranked on buzz-factor, superstars Martina McBride, Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill and Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles round out the Top 5. Check out the full list here...
Congrats to Sunny Sweeney who won the Austin360.com A-List Poll. The readers voted Sunny the Best Country Music Singer/Group in the Austin scene, beating out Asleep at the Wheel, Kelly Willis and others...Trisha Yearwood and Taylor Swift are part of a Coke on-screen promotion at AMC Movie Theaters this fall; each artist will be featured on over 14,000 screens with a trivia question and a profile of their current album...
Trisha Yearwood's CMT Crossroads collaboration with Kenny 'Babyface' Edmonds on "Change The World" has been added to heavy rotation on CMT and CMT Pure Country. Catch the video premiere this Thursday on CMT Top 20 Countdown and catch the premiere of CMT Crossroads with Trisha and Babyface September 21st on the network.
