Zac Brown Band

Lil Wayne Beat By Kenny Chesney On Billboard

06 Oct 2010 12:56:18 EDT

Weezy's I Am Not a Human Being comes in at #2, Gucci Mane is #4.
By Gil Kaufman

Somewhere, probably on a beach, country sand bum Kenny Chesney is likely celebrating the #1 debut of his latest album, Hemingway's Whiskey, which will top the Billboard 200 chart next week thanks to sales of 183,000. He easily beat out the week's other top debut, the digital release of incarcerated rapper Lil Wayne's I Am Not a Human Being album, which sold 110,000 copies, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan. The physical release of Weezy's album, with bonus tracks, is due on October 12.

The pair lead a stampede of new faces on the charts this week, which also include Gucci Mane at #4 with Georgia's Most Wanted (60,000) and guitar legend Eric Clapton at #6 with Clapton (47,000).

The rest of the top 10: Zac Brown Band, You Get What You Give (#3, 70,000), Eminem, Recovery (#5, 59,000), Trey Songz, Passion, Pain & Pleasure (#7, 42,000), Linkin Park, A Thousand Suns (#8, 42,000), Maroon 5, Hands All Over (#9, 41,000, down 71 percent in week two) and Selena Gomez & the Scene, A Year Without Rain (#10, 38,000).

Just outside the top, Jimmy Eat World land at #11 with Invented (38,000), Lil Boosie is just behind at #13 with the aptly titled Incarcerated (30,000), rock icon Neil Young comes in at #14 with Le Noise (30,000) and Nine Inch Nails maestro Trent Reznor skates into the #20 position with his score to the Facebook move, "The Social Network."

Veteran rapper-turned-family-movie-actor Ice Cube has a soft landing at #22 with I Am the West (22,000), grunge giants Soundgarden are at #24 with their hits collection Telephantasm (19,000), Jeremih is hot on their heels at #17 with All About You (18,000) and smooth crooner Seal crashes in at #31 with Seal 6: Commitment (17,000).

It was also chart debut time for brainy punkers Bad Religion, whose The Dissent of Man comes in at #35 (16,000), just head of Ben Folds' collabo with author Nick Hornby, Lonely Avenue (14,000) and Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest (#37, 14,000).

Also debuting this week: Mushroomhead, Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children (#44, 11,000), Gin Blossoms, No Chocolate Cake (#73, 7,000), Mark Ronson and the Business Intl., Record Collection (#81, 6,000) and No Age, Everything in Between (#103, 4,000).

The iTunes charts sees the first major shakeup in a while, with the top 10 albums getting a number of new faces, including Wayne's Human Being at #1, followed by Chesney, Zac Brown, Lecrae with Rehab, Jimmy Eat World, Maroon 5, Mumford & Sons' Sigh No More, Eminem, Clapton and Gucci.

Though iTunes does not divulge sales figures, the singles chart has a new #1 while otherwise remaining mostly unchanged. Far East Movement move into the top spot with "Like a G6," followed by Bruno Mars ("Just the Way You Are"), Nelly ("Just a Dream"), Rihanna ("Only Girl (In the World)"), Katy Perry ("Teenage Dream"), Flo Rida ("Club Can't Handle Me"), the "Glee"

Cast ("Toxic"), Usher ("DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love"), Taio Cruz ("Dynamite") and Lil Wayne ("Gonorrhea").

Look for more shuffling at the top next week with new releases from Toby Keith, Mars, Waka Flocka Flame and David Archuleta.

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Zac Brown Band Top Billboard, With Maroon 5 Close Behind

29 Sep 2010 12:32:26 EDT

Selena Gomez and the Scene debut at #4.
By Gil Kaufman

It was a short trip to the top for Linkin Park. A week after the band's A Thousand Suns hit #1 on the Billboard 200, sales dropped off by more than 70 percent as a pair of newcomers took the lead. Snagging the pole position is last year's Best New Artist Grammy winner Zac Brown Band, whose You Get What You Give will take #1 on sales of 153,000, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan. Just behind at #2 is the chart debut of Maroon 5's third album, Hands All Over, which moved 142,000 units.

They're joined by a number of other top 10 debuts, including a #4 bow by Selena Gomez and the Scene with A Year Without Rain (66,000), rock legend Santana with his covers album Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time (#5, 66,000), John Legend and the Roots' collaborative covers effort Wake Up! (#8, 63,000) and country singer Billy Currington's Enjoy Yourself (#9, 45,000).

The rest of the top 10: Linkin Park (#3, 70,000), Eminem, Recovery (#6, 66,000), Trey Songz, Passion, Pain & Pleasure (#7, 66,000, down 73 percent) and Justin Bieber, My World 2.0 (#10, 33,000). The continued strong sales for Eminem helped the rapper claim the title for the best-selling album released in 2010, as Recovery will surpass Lady Antebellum's Need You Now by crossing the 2.6 million mark.

Otherwise it was a quiet week, as some albums that debuted in the top 10 last week saw serious drops, including country outlaw Jamey Johnson's Guitar Song (down 52 percent to 30,000), Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant's Band of Joy (down 48 percent to 25,000) and Weezer, whose indie-label debut, Hurley, tumbles 18 spots to #24 as sales tailed off by 69 percent to 14,000.

Positive-vibes merchants Michael Franti & Spearhead have a strong debut with The Sound of Sunshine (#17, 18,000), while System of a Down singer Serj Tankian lands at #35 with Imperfect Harmonies (10,000). Maroon 5 have bragging rights on the iTunes albums chart, where Hands takes the #1 spot, followed by Zac Brown, Legend and the Roots, Linkin Park, Santana, Eminem, the resilient Sigh No More by Mumford & Sons, Songz, Gomez and Spearhead.

Though sales figures are not released, Bruno Mars should be smiling that he's holding onto the top slot on the iTunes singles chart with his breakout solo hit, "Just the Way You Are." Just behind are Far East Movement with "Like a G6," Rihanna with "Only Girl (In the World)," Nelly's "Just a Dream," Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream," Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin'

in Love" and Taio Cruz with "Dynamite." Rounding out the singles chart is Flo Rida's "Club Can't Handle Me" and two new entries from the "Glee" cast, "Empire State of Mind"

and "Telephone."

There will be more shuffling at the top next week with the debut of new albums from Gucci Mane, Kenny Chesney, Jeremih and Eric Clapton.

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'Glee' Madonna Soundtrack Debuts At #1 On Billboard Chart

28 Apr 2010 13:32:00 EDT

All-AC/DC 'Iron Man 2' soundtrack debuts at #4, Justin Bieber falls to #3 in next week's rankings.
By Gil Kaufman

The Gleeking of America continues unabated, as the latest soundtrack from the hit Fox series about singing teens will hit #1 on the Billboard 200 chart next week. The seven-track The Power of Madonna from "Glee," featuring such hits as "Vogue," "Like a Virgin," "Like a Prayer" and "Express Yourself," will top the charts with a modest 100,000 in sales, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

The second-highest debut of the week will belong to the all-AC/DC soundtrack to "Iron Man 2," which will hit #4 (76,000), followed by the latest from flip-flop-loving beach bum Jimmy Buffett, the Wal-Mart exclusive Encores (#7, 31,000).

The rest of the top 10 was relatively unchanged, with country trio Lady Antebellum continuing the strong run of Need You Now (#2, 83,000), riot-causing teen Justin Bieber falling two slots to #3 with My World 2.0 (81,000), Usher falling one with Raymond v Raymond (#5, 52,000), NOW 33 holding steady at #6 (37,000), Bieber's debut,My World, creeping up two spots to #8 (31,000), the Zac Brown Band's Foundation hopping six spots to #9 (29,000) and Lady Gaga dropping three to #10 with The Fame (28,000).

The lineup was way different on the iTunes Album Chart, where Bullet for My Valentine's Fever was in the #1 spot, followed by the "Glee" Madonna album, the Punk Goes Classic Rock compilation, Melissa Etheridge's Fearless Love, Kaskade's Dynasty, Lady Antebellum, Mary Chapin Carpenter's The Age of Miracles, Usher, the deluxe version of Miranda Cosgrove's Sparks Fly and Shania Twain: Greatest Hits.

A couple of hard rockers just missed the winner's circle on the Billboard tally, with Circa Survive debuting at #11 with Blue Sky Noise (28,000) and veterans Sevendust just behind them at #12 with Cold Day Memory (27,000). A handful of wins at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas helped boost Miranda Lambert's Revolution by 23 spots, moving it to #13 (26,000, up 105 percent), even as trippy rockers MGMT took a serious 16-spot tumble in week two with their knotty second album, Congratulations (#18, 20,000, down 70 percent).

Carrie Underwood also drafted on some ACM goodwill, moving up 17 slots to #21 with Play On after becoming the first woman in the awards' history to win Entertainer of the Year two years in a row.

Rap veterans Cypress Hill landed at #19 with their latest, Rise Up (18,000), which features cameos from Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda, Everlast, Pitbull and Mark Anthony. Further down the line, the original cast recording of Green Day's "American Idiot" Broadway musical landed at #43 (11,000) and British singer Kate Nash crashed the boards at #60 with her album My Best Friend Is You (8,000).

Look for new releases next week from B.o.B, Melissa Etheridge and Hole, plus a new "iCarly" soundtrack.

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Leon Russell Shines With Zac Brown Band At The Grammys

31 Jan 2010 23:58:00 EST

Legendary keyboardist joins Best New Artist winners on their hit song 'Chicken Fried.'
By MTV News Staff

Leon Russell, the wispy keyboardist who guested with the Zac Brown Band at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night (January 31), brought decades of experience and legendary performances to the stage.

Born Claude Russell Bridges in Oklahoma in 1942, the keyboardist began his career in the nightclubs of Tulsa in his early teens. After relocating to Los Angeles, he became a part of Phil Spector's legendary team of session musicians, performing on many of Spector's biggest hits, as well as songs by the Byrds, Herb Alpert and others.

His first hit as a songwriter was Joe Cocker's take on "Delta Lady." He then helmed Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour, at which many felt Russell stole the show. He also took the spotlight during George Harrison's 1971 Concert for Bangladesh, singing a medley of the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and the '50s hit "Young Blood" (he also played piano on the Stones' 1969 album Let It Bleed).

Apart from his 1972 hit album Carney (featuring the hits "Tight Rope" and "This Masquerade"), Russell's solo efforts have met with limited success, but he has written hit songs for others, including "Superstar," co-written with Bonnie Bramlett, which was later rendered by the Carpenters, Luther Vandross and Sonic Youth; and especially "A Song for You," which has been covered by Donny Hathaway, Christina Aguilera and many others. He also had a country hit in 1979, a cover of the Elvis Presley classic "Heartbreak Hotel" performed with Willie Nelson.

Throughout the '80s, Russell continued to tour and pump out live and studio albums, including the country disc Hank Wilson Vol. II in 1984. The next decade, he teamed up with Bruce Hornsby for Anything Can Happen. In 2001, Russell won a Grammy for his collaboration with Earl Scruggs and friends on "Foggy Mountain Breakdown."

At Willie Nelson's 70th birthday celebration at the Beacon Theatre in New York in 2003, Russell performed "A Song for You" with Nelson and Ray Charles. In the new millennium, Russell has continued to record music on his own label and has toured, even hitting Japan at one point during a three-year-long stint on the road.

During Sunday's Grammy performance, Zac Brown opened with a rendition of "America the Beautiful" before bringing out Russell, who hammered away at the piano as Brown and his band busted through their hit song "Chicken Fried."

Stick with MTV News for our coverage of the 2010 Grammy Awards! We'll have reports on your favorite nominees, party photos, behind-the-scenes video and much more from the big show!

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