Chris Stapleton’s 2nd Week at #1 Proves He’s No Fluke
Another week, and another #1 showing for Chris Stapleton’s debut album Traveller as the songwriter and performer continues to ride a wave of momentum after a massive showing at the CMA Awards on November 4th. A sweep of New Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year categories, and a high-profile performance with Justin Timberlake put Stapleton on the map of mainstream fans in a big way. But now folks appear to like what they’re hearing, and Stapleton’s momentum is sustaining well beyond your average awards show bump.
According to HITS Daily Double‘s building albums chart, Chris Stapleton sold an additional 82,876 album last week, which is good enough for his second consecutive week at the top spot in all of music. He also accumulated an additional 26,000 album-equivalent streams over the week, for a total of 109,000 units. Stapleton’s showing clearly puts him in the lead of all competitors. It will also make him only the second artist in 2015 to spend two weeks at #1. The other was Luke Bryan.
***UPDATE: According to Billboard, Traveller sold another 97,000 copies, and 124,000 equivalent album units when adding in streaming.
Eric Church, who released his surprise album Mr. Misunderstood the day of the CMA awards, is expected to come in second with another 66,000 albums sold, and Tim McGraw, who saw the debut of his new album Damn Country Music, sold just over 41,000 albums. Traveller sold 27,000 copies upon its debut on May 5th, 2015, and had only sold a total of 93,900 copies as of late October heading into the CMA Awards.
The party at #1 will be ending for Stapleton next week however. Justin Bieber’s new record is likely to sell nearly half a million copies, and this Friday, Adele releases her new album which is likely to perform even better. However the focus for Stapleton will now turn to the Grammy Awards. His wins and massive upswing comes at a time when Grammy voters are putting the finishing touches on their nominee ballots. The awards happen on February 17th, 2016, and the nominees will likely be announced the first week of December.
Meanwhile Chris Stapleton isn’t the only one hoping to continue a post-CMA’s wave. Last week Justin Timberlake sent his song “Drink You Away” to country radio. It’s the same song Timberlake and Stapleton performed together on the CMA Awards.
November 15, 2015 @ 7:34 pm
I hear him a few times a day on several mainstream “country” stations here in Centeral Montana… I’m lovin’ it! Nobody to Blame is a great song, reminds me a lot of Travis Tritt.
November 15, 2015 @ 8:10 pm
That’s because it does sound like Travis Tritt. There are so many other artists that are more original and worthy… though none were on the CMA ballot this year. Everyone is so desperate for a “hero” that they fall head over heels with anything remotely good. I remember Stapleton before he bought his outlaw clothes and stole Jamey Johnson’s look. I also remember him for selling out on all of those awful novelty songs like “hey batter batter swing” by Trace Adkins etc. He’s as much a made up character as Kacey Musgraves and Eric Church. Although I don’t like their music, Luke Bryan and Toby Keith seem way more authentic. Those of you that think it is okay to sell out as a songwriter but not as an artist don’t really understand how the music business and Nashville works. Just like you don’t understand what it means that Eric Church has been paying for an ad on this site to promote his new album.
November 15, 2015 @ 8:49 pm
Thanks so much for the lecture.
November 15, 2015 @ 9:01 pm
Everyone on this website lectures… and it’s here for everyone to give their opinion.
November 15, 2015 @ 9:18 pm
For the record, I and many other folks were heavily touting Chris Stapleton way before he was even nominated for any CMA Awards, let alone winning them or turning in big sales numbers. Sure there’s some bandwagoners, but there’s also a large amount of folks who are seething with anger over Stapleton’s success to what seems to be an irrational degree. Hey, Stapleton wrote some questionable songs for some questionable folks. But it was Chris Stapleton’s solo work which brought him the accolades. I don’t have a problem with anyone for not liking Stapleton’s music, or for feeling like he didn’t rise to the top the right way. But to be so angry about it is what I don’t understand, because the same things people are getting angry over are the same things getting torn asunder by Stapleton ending up on top instead of Sam Hunt.
November 15, 2015 @ 9:28 pm
Listen to The Steeldrivers, Johnson. He is authentic. Blue Side Of The Mountain is such a great song… This isn’t the best music being made in country/roots today but it’s still pretty good.
November 15, 2015 @ 9:33 pm
Don’t assume what I do and don’t understand…songwriting for Chris Stapleton on Music Row was a job. You have a jobe to pay the bills…get over it. So he wrote some bad songs, look at everything else he wrote. I’m sure many of us on this site would do exactly what Stapleton did if given the opportunity. Stop looking for something to complain about.
November 16, 2015 @ 10:18 am
Before he stole the look of the sellout who wrote Honky Tonk Badonkadonk?
Heavens to Betsy!
November 16, 2015 @ 12:40 pm
Saying you remember him before he stole Jameys outlaw look and all of that confuses me…Did you know him personally? I’ve been a fan of his since I believe ’09 when I happened across the first Steeldrivers album. Then Chris’s look was pretty much the same except he looked to be about 400lbs. I’m just curious to where the knowledge of his previous look comes from. As a fan of his for the last 6 years or so I’ve never seen another look.
November 16, 2015 @ 1:11 pm
I was wondering the same thing myself. Just to be sure, I took a look at the band picture on the back of my copy of the first Steeldrivers album. Long and beard, just like now. And that album came out several months before Jamey’s That Lonesome Song album.
November 15, 2015 @ 7:59 pm
Damn Bieber…
Billboard link: http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6762538/chris-stapleton-tops-billboard-200-second-week “With a second week at No. 1, Traveller is one of only two albums to spend more than a week atop the list in 2015. Earlier in the year, Luke Bryan”™s Kill the Lights ruled for its first two frames… Eric Church”™s Mr. Misunderstood climbs a spot to No. 2 in its second chart week.”
Stapleton and Church, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and many more were recently announced for the John Lennon tribute next month, which will be televised on AMC: http://blackbirdmusicgroup.com/imagine-john-lennon-75th-birthday-concert/
November 15, 2015 @ 8:51 pm
good for him. his website says he only has a handful of performances scheduled for the next couple of months. is he going to be adding dates to capitalize on all this attention?
November 15, 2015 @ 9:20 pm
I’m sure his label and management are trying to figure out what to do at this point, and where the proper place is to slot him. We may hear more on this front soon.
November 15, 2015 @ 9:06 pm
That’s great news that Chris is at #1 for the second week, but he’ll spend few more weeks at #1 on the country charts.
November 15, 2015 @ 9:43 pm
I have to be very honest, for some reason this album just did not really do it for me. I literally only liked a couple of songs off of it, with “Tennessee Whiskey” being one of those and he didn’t even write that one. I really wanted to like this album too, I can’t think of very many artists that I have heard recommendations for off this site or over at Galleywinter, which I have been on for the last 15 years that I didn’t just love. I love “Tennessee Whiskey”, but the album as a whole just does not do it for me and I am someone who could care less about what other songs he wrote. I guess sometimes, things hit each of us differently.
November 15, 2015 @ 10:28 pm
I like, but don’t love, “Traveller” myself (and I explained why in the comments of Trigger’s review of it).
At any rate, I’m cheering Stapleton on because I genuinely believe he is deserving of his success and because he is an all-around great person. But there are at least fifteen albums I liked better than “Traveller” released throughout 2015 with Whitey Morgan, Gretchen Peters, Wade Bowen/Randy Rogers and James McMurtry’s just a few.
November 16, 2015 @ 7:20 am
Likewise, it’s a good, not “great” album. Frankly, some of the effusive praise I’m seeing for it is kind of confusing to me. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks the “outlaw” image seems a little too label-made.
That said, it’s a great “adult” album. It’s country-ish blues aimed at something other than the 39 year old pretending to be 17 demographic, which, to a landscape starved of anything that isn’t embarrassing to listen to, seems like manna from heaven. I still can’t help but hear a whole lot of Johnny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepard from ’99 or so when I put the album on though.
November 16, 2015 @ 10:21 am
I love it as what’s essentially a gateway drug to other (better) country albums.
Traveller is what you play to show someone that country can be good. Then you show them stuff like Isbell and Sturgill.
November 16, 2015 @ 2:37 pm
This!
November 16, 2015 @ 7:47 pm
I don’t know whether Traveller is a “great” album or not. Few albums are. But some of the material on that record is pretty damn strong, in my opinion.
November 15, 2015 @ 10:22 pm
Justin Timberlake won’t be eligible for any categories at the Grammys in February seeing that two years have transpired since he landed the first of two installments of “The 20/20 Experience”. He has nothing to gain from the CMA afterglow from an awards standpoint.
This is all about Stapleton. And I’m eagerly awaiting the announcing of the nominations.
Either Justin Bieber or One Direction will take #1 this coming week, and Adele will dominate the Billboard 200 through around the time the Grammys happen. Adele WILL dominate the Grammy Awards in 2017 as long as reviews for “25” are generally favorable.
November 15, 2015 @ 10:26 pm
Sorry if I somehow implied Grammy consideration for Timberlake. That wasn’t what I intended.
November 16, 2015 @ 12:38 am
Poor Tim McGraw! New album and nobody’s paying attention.
November 16, 2015 @ 5:42 am
Tim’s gotta stop releasing pop albums
November 17, 2015 @ 10:05 am
You’re kidding, right? How is anything that Tim released “pop”? Aside of ‘Lookin For That Girl’? Sundown Heaven Town album mostly sucked, but Damn Country Music is pretty good.
November 16, 2015 @ 1:13 am
Literally just saw him at the Fillmore in SF — first time he’s ever played there. Show sold out after the CMA wins, and the crowd was enthusiastic. I don’t think he was expecting it, and he seemed genuinely jazzed to see a bunch of folks from the Left Coast singing along. Definitely one of the better shows I’ve seen there…
November 16, 2015 @ 6:51 am
It’s also forcing radio to give him at least some play. “Nobody to Blame” just broke into the Mediabase top 40 this week at #39 and it’s #2 in new airplay.
November 16, 2015 @ 10:50 am
The Outsiders I believe sold north of 200,000 copies in its first week, so I wonder how Eric sending out free copies affected his sales. Also, I believe you could hear it for free the day it was released on Apple Music. His numbers seem low compared to The Outsiders.
November 16, 2015 @ 11:11 am
I’m seeing numbers somewhere close to 80,000 folks who received the album for free, and you also have to consider this is of the core Eric Church constituency who’ve signed up for his fan club who would have been pretty much guaranteed to buy one. But the mentality of Church is that all that love will come back to him double fold, the numbers eventually will shake out, and he will continue to enjoy one of the most loyal fan bases in country music.
I think what hurt him was Chris Stapleton’s huge night, and how it sort of overshadowed Church’s “surprise.” Chris Stapleton’s was an even bigger one.
November 16, 2015 @ 5:44 pm
As far as I’m concerned, a win for Chris Stapleton is a win for authentic country music, and a win for Trigger as well. Sure, Stapleton has written some questionable stuff in the past, I didn’t really like those songs he wrote for Thomas Rhett. But he’s more than made up for that with his solo work, and has one of the best voices in all of music today, not just country. “Traveller” in my opinion is perhaps the best country album we’ve seen in the past 30 years.
This is just the beginning folks, when people are exposed to good music, they flock to it, as evidenced by the sales of “Traveller” the past two weeks. I think Stapleton is one of the artists who is going to help get mainstream country back on track. Perhaps his rise will also lead to more exposure for traditional artists on the outskirts of the mainstream like Mo Pitney or Jon Pardi.