Colter Wall, Shane Smith & the Saints See ‘Yellowstone’ Sales Boost
Listen ladies and gentlemen, it’s not just a hypothetical that when a song gets featured on Paramount’s Yellowstone series it’s a big deal. And yeah, I know a few of you folks are tired of seeing people rave about this show that some consider nothing more than a soap opera with swear words and spurs. Well tough shit. What’s going on at the moment is a musical phenomenon helping to support independent country music, and it deserves our attention.
Yellowstone is the biggest show on all of television at the moment according to the ratings, and the 3rd episode of Season 4 had music front and center even more than most of the show’s installments. The episode wasn’t just named after the Shane Smith and the Saints song “All I See Is You,” the song wasn’t just featured in a pivotal scene, right before the song plays, two of the characters name checked the band within the show’s dialogue.
What has happened since then? “All I See Is You” has shot up the iTunes charts—the best way we can gauge appeal for music in real time. Episode 3 aired on Sunday evening, November 14th. By Monday, “All I See Is You” was #4 in country on the iTunes charts, and #20 in all of music. By Tuesday (11-16), the song had risen to #3 in country, and #15 in all of music. In other words, interest in the song is sustaining, and growing.
Meanwhile, the album that “All I See Is You” appears on—2015’s Geronimo—has also seen a sizable boost. It is currently sitting at #6 in country on the iTunes charts, and #20 in all of music. And that’s not all. Shane Smith’s previous albums Coast (2013) sits at #18 in country, and Hail Mary (2019) is at #27. In other words, all of the music of Shane Smith and the Saints is seeing rising interest from the Yellowstone exposure. All of these numbers can be seen at iTunescharts.net, which is updated in real time.
Fans and followers of Shane Smith and the Saints have been waiting for their breakthrough moment for years. Though we won’t have any official numbers and chart placements until next week, we very well might look back at this Yellowstone episode as the moment this Texas-based band hit hyperdrive. “All I See Is You” is considered one of Shane Smith’s signature songs.
Meanwhile, Colter Wall’s song “Sleeping on the Blacktop” was also featured prominently in the episode’s opening scene, and is also seeing spiking interest. Though the song is not registering on any of the country charts (probably because of its metadata listing), the song currently sits at #12 on the iTunes all genre songs chart right between selections from Adele and Bruno Mars, while the album “Sleeping on the Blacktop” comes from—2015’s Imaginary Appalachia—is at #33 on the all genre albums chart.
These weren’t the only two artists featured on the episode. “Blind Lover” by The Steel Woods also made an appearance, as did the song “Ain’t Got Much” by Ross Shifflett.
And last but not least, even though the episode was named after Shane Smith’s “All I See Is You,” it was dedicated to none other than John Prine. His song “Caravan of Fools” was featured at the end of the episode. As some pointed out afterwards, Yellowstone did what the 2020 CMA Awards didn’t, which was pay tribute to Prine after his passing in April of 2020. The CMAs also failed to include an In Memoriam segment in 2021, while the Season 4 premier episode of Yellowstone doubled up the 2021 CMA Awards in ratings.
Speaking of ratings, though the numbers are still coming in, they remained very strong for Episode 3 of the series, just very slightly below the season premier episode, which pulled in a grand total of 14.7 million viewers. Yellowstone is currently the top series of the season across all television, including broadcast, cable, and premium networks, and the 2-part premier was the biggest episode on cable since the season premier of The Walking Dead in 2017.
In 2018 when Whiskey Myers was featured performing in a Yellowstone episode, it sent the Southern rock band from Texas on the meteoric rise they’re still enjoying today. We very well could see a similar trajectory for Shane Smith and the Saints. By not just playing a song in the background, but writing these bands and artists into the script, it’s making for exposure these bands have lacked from mainstream country radio and awards shows.
To see all the music featured in Season 4 of Yellowstone so far, CLICK HERE.
November 16, 2021 @ 12:16 pm
In the meantime, the new Kacey Musgraves album dropped out of the Billboard 200 after 8 weeks. Is that bad?
November 16, 2021 @ 2:44 pm
That depends. Is your name Kacey Musgraves?
November 16, 2021 @ 12:32 pm
“All I See Is You” is a great song.
When are they releasing new music? They are due. “Hail Mary” was OK but it has outstayed its welcome. Drop some singles, boys.
November 16, 2021 @ 12:39 pm
Yellowstone is nowhere close to the best show I’ve ever seen. But it’s a fun show to watch with my wife. It’s the only TV show I watch because the other shows my wife tries to get me to watch are just terrible in my opinion (here’s looking at you 911).
The other week my wife picked me up from Hartsfield Jackson after a work trip. We live about an hour and a half from the airport and because for the last 4 hours or so I have been listening to everything from Mike and the Moonpies to Turnpike to Viva Terlingua I let her play whatever she wanted. And what she wanted was the Highway on XM radio. For that hour and a half ride home I tried my best to find one song I enjoyed. And I came away unsurprisingly disappointed.
A couple songs that stands out…
Dad’s Old Number
by Cole Swindell.
I feel like the song is poor mans David or Rural Route. And tries way too hard to be sentimental and ends up being cheesy and silly.
And then there is Fancy Like. I have nothing good to say about that song. I really have no idea how this song ends up on a Channel that’s supposed to be dedicated to country music.
And lastly, my wife said you’ll love this new Thomas Rhett song Country Again because it sounds like “your kind of music”. I was very much amused by the irony of the song.
Say what you want about Yellowstone but it’s proving that what people want most is honesty and genuineness in their music.
“I’ll tell you what the public likes more than anything, it’s the rarest commodity in the world – honesty.”
– Merle Haggard
November 16, 2021 @ 5:01 pm
Shane Smith is one of the best live bands out there imo. Right there with Blackberry Smoke and Whiskey Myers. Glad to see them getting some recognition!
November 16, 2021 @ 6:47 pm
“All I See Is You” is another embarrassing woman-worship song. All you see is her? Really?
Colter sings:
“Corn liquor tastes sweeter in this town
Could it be it’s the same as the last?
I swear I’ve seen your face elsewhere before
Just as familiar as a bottle and a glass”
Ouch, but true. It could use a tweak here and there, but at least we’re talking. Then you hear this:
“Love and devotion
Deep as any ocean
Don’t play by anybody’s rules
With your carousel of horses
And your unforeseen forces
You’re running with the caravan of fools”
You realize you’re running with the old dog who knows every inch of the territory.
Kinda where we always are: noobs, journeymen, and master craftsmen. And fools. Don’t forget the fools.
November 17, 2021 @ 4:11 am
Agreed. Stop with the unrealistic ‘lovesongs’.
Also, crazy is never beautiful. If some guy says this to you it means he’s scraping to find anything about you to compliment you on.
November 21, 2021 @ 6:13 pm
Oh can it you nerd. CW’s ‘Caroline’ fills the exact same niche as All I See Is You. The song is fine.
November 16, 2021 @ 6:53 pm
Awesome news, I always love the fiddle driven music from the Texas/Red Dirt scene and Shane Smith and the Saints does it right. Glad their receiving attention from a wider audience, and great to see their music climbing the charts.
November 18, 2021 @ 7:54 am
I like the show but it’s basically an entire commercial. I mean the damn writer literally owns the one ranch and is doing a spin off just focused on it. The commercialization is hard to get through sometimes
November 17, 2021 @ 7:52 am
Yellowstone has fantastic music throughout. I thought the way they inserted the band name (Shane Smith) into the dialogue was very contrived though.
November 17, 2021 @ 10:55 am
I’m not sure if I’d take iTunes charts as representative of any trends these days, given how few sales are needed to make top 20.
November 17, 2021 @ 12:38 pm
If you look at the Top 100 Country Albums, Patsy Clines greatest Hits (Released 1967) is at No. 56 with a bullet!
November 17, 2021 @ 1:08 pm
I always caution using iTunes charts to measure long-term appeal for a track, album, or artist as well, since anyone can try and manipulate these charts with just a few hundred sales. But in this case, since these spikes do no coincide with the release of new music, I do think they give us a good real-time perspective at the bump in interest Shane Smith and the Saints and Colter Wall saw from the show. When the full charts come out in the coming weeks, we’ll see if that bump resulted in a more substantial and measurable blip.
November 18, 2021 @ 12:12 pm
Saw Shane Smith in Louisville last night and they rocked the place out. Unfortunately they had a really small crowd (maybe 50) because of the venue’s protocols (the venue’s staff were also dicks throughout the night). I talked with his tour manager for a while at the merch booth and he said they’ve been lucky to break even most nights of their current tour due to venues having protocols and not advertising them. Told me the night before they had over 40 people turned away by the venue they played at.
November 24, 2021 @ 8:05 am
I saw Shane Smith live last week for first time in several years. Their live concert was incredible. One of the best I’ve seen since Turnpike. Their new live album — which I hope Trigger reviews — is really good. As much as I enjoy them in small venues, I feel like they’re ready for next level.