BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS EDITED BY TOM ROLAND, tom.roland@billboard.com FEBRUARY 26, 2015 | PAGE 1 OF 7

INSIDEMakin’ Tracks:

Cam’s ‘My Mistake’

>page 2

Stark Report: Why Does

Radio Need Promotion?

>page 3

Questions Answered:

WSIX Nashville PD Michael

Bryan >page 4

Five To Join Country

Radio Hall >page 4

Big D & Bubba, WUSN Chicago Lead ACM List

>page 4

Texas/red-dirt touring-circuit veteran Aaron Watson becomes the first solo male of the Nielsen Music era (1991-present) to debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart with a self-released and independently distributed/promoted studio album, as The Underdog (BIG Label/Thirty Tigers) starts with 26,000 cop-ies sold, his best-ever sales week. Among all acts in that span, Watson is the second to bow atop the chart with such a set, fol-lowing Martina McBride’s Everlasting (April 26, 2014).

Reinforcing his touring appeal, Wat-son is also the only artist to debut at the Top Country Albums summit, excluding collaborative, seasonal and comedy sets, without charting previously on the Coun-try Airplay chart. (To further explain the qualifiers, Lionel Richie reigned over that chart with his collaborative Tuskegee in 2012, which only later yielded a Country Airplay chart entry. Meanwhile, The Rob-ertsons and Larry the Cable Guy have also topped the albums list, marking two novelty-based acts who wouldn’t necessarily be expected to appear on the airplay ranking.)

The Underdog marks Watson’s 10th studio release (in addition to two live albums) and his sixth to reach Top Country

Albums. It surpasses Watson’s previous best rank and weekly sum, set when Real Good Time debuted and peaked at No. 9 with 6,000 copies (Oct. 27, 2012). “That Look,” the new set’s lead single, charted for a week (Nov. 1, 2014) at No. 41 on the Hot

Country Songs chart; it became his lone entry to date on Country Digital Songs the same week, debuting and peaking at No. 10 with 19,000 downloads sold. It has shifted 39,000 to date.

Watson is also the top debut at No. 44 on the Billboard Artist 100 (viewable on Billboard.com/biz). The chart ranks the top acts of all genres each week with a methodology that combines sales, air-play, streaming and social data.

Meanwhile, Tim McGraw’s perfor-mance on the Feb. 22 Academy Awards (broadcast on CBS) of Glen Campbell’s

Oscar-nominated “I’m Not Gonna Miss You” (Big Machine) re-turns Campbell’s recording of the ballad to Hot Country Songs, where it re-enters at No. 37. The track had previously peaked at No. 21 (Nov. 1, 2014). “Miss” returns to Country Digital Songs at new peak (No. 22; 12,000 sold, up 613 percent). Concurrently, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me (the soundtrack to the documentary of the same name) bows at No. 20 on Top Country Albums (3,000).

WATSON

WADE JESSEN wade.jessen@billboard.com

Country MID- WEEK

UPDATE

No ‘Underdog’ Watson Debuts At No. 1; Oscars Lift Campbell

The multilayered, a cappella harmony vocals give it a stark Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers Band opening.

The first verse’s depiction of a bar stocked with tourists and locals feels like a classic Toby Keith portrait.

Russ Pahl’s tangy three-note steel guitar figure in the chorus owes a debt to Brooks & Dunn’s “Ain’t Nothing ’Bout You.”

And the undulating piano-tinged texture sounds remarkably similar to Fun’s anthemic Grammy-winning track “We Are Young.”

“My Mistake,” the debut single by Arista art-ist Cam (given name Camaron Ochs), is at once fresh and familiar, that rare mix of daring and comfort that’s often the hallmark of a hit.

“We’re not trying to make music that nobody’s ever heard before. We’re just trying to make coun-try music for 2015 and on,” says producer Tyler Johnson (OneRepublic, Taylor Swift). “I’m a huge fan of the past and what’s been done. What’s so important to me is that it’s not just about mak-ing something brand-new, it’s also about re- articulating something in a new way.”

Appropriately, “My Mistake” re-articulates the classic country theme of a broken heart, set in a classic country location: a nightclub. And Cam wasn’t just playing with words when she started it. She was reflecting on her own reality when wrote the chorus in the apartment she occupied at the time in Los Angeles.

“I knew a relationship I was in was ending,” she recalls. “So I wrote the beginning part of that chorus: ‘Just another heartache in waiting/Just another sweet-talking dream that ends in lonely nights.’ And then I went upstairs to Tyler Johnson’s apartment one floor above me and recorded that chorus in his little home studio. When I got to the end I was thinking, ‘Gosh, this is so sad. This isn’t really as fun and relatable as I had kind of hoped.’ ”

On the other hand, she could find a silver lining: The guy might have been a mistake, but, as the close of the refrain notes, “He’s my mistake to make all night.”

“I added that last tagline as ownership of what I was going through,” she notes.It was the part that of the song that won Johnson over — and he needed to

believe in it to get it completed. They kept revising “My Mistake” periodically during the next year-and-a-half.

“We had reason to work on the verses,” he says. “That chorus was so strong and expressed something so important, which is the idea of owning up to your mistakes, but being casual about it. Being light-hearted about it is such a great message, but I was like, ‘We have to get these verses right.’ ”

Cam and Johnson worked through it in multiple settings. In addition to writ-ing time in California, they hashed out pieces of “My Mistake” at a couple of Nashville hangouts near Vanderbilt, Café Coco and the Gold Rush. The latter, on Elliston Place, inspired a bit of a “Piano Man” vibe. Along the way, they made several recordings — one in Los Angeles with a full band; another at the Castle in Franklin, Tenn.; then another L.A. session in which executive producer Jeff Bhasker (Fun, Bruno Mars) turned it into something of a piano ballad. It would not be the final version, but it was a key point in the journey of “My Mistake.”

“It could be stripped down with no production, and it really stood on its own,” notes Johnson. “That was when we knew we had the songwriting done.”

It had some subtly clever moments. The end of the second verse varies from the opening stanza, providing Cam another extended a cappella note. And the bridge matches her with a potential new boyfriend, debating as the bar shuts

down if they have a future. It sounds a lot like a one-night stand — an interpretation that neither Cam nor Johnson intended — though they eventu-ally accepted it could be read that way.

“If that’s what it needs to be, then that’s the best version for you,” says Cam.

Ultimately, they recorded it a fourth time at John and Martina McBride’s Blackbird Studios with Glen Duncan on bouzouki and Tom Buko-vac adding plenty of creative electric guitar tones. Bhasker laid down another piano track, and once it was completed, he suggested a new drum beat that might pull it all together. They enlisted Steve Jordan (John Mayer Trio, Sheryl Crow) to over-lay that part and give it a final injection of energy.

Cam felt she was being tested as she recorded the final vocals since — as opposed to a karaoke song, where there’s a definitive version to emu-late — she would be adding the nuances that, with any luck, would make a final imprint on the public.

“All those trained decisions you make about inflections and ends of phrases, I had to decide,” she says. “There was nothing to lean on, so it was a little bit of a lonely walk forward as you start prov-

ing yourself.”Cam overdubbed most of the 16 harmony parts on the a cappella sections,

with Johnson adding a couple voices for sonic depth. On some of the tracks, he lowered the pitch of the lead voice before she sang harmony. Then he reset the parts to the proper pitch, in essence changing the timbre of her harmonies.

“When you speed up a tape player, the voice gets all squeaky,” he explains. “If you do it to a minor amount, it adds this energy and this punch.”

Recommended by WSIX Nashville PD Michael Bryan, Cam signed with Arista in mid-2014, when “My Mistake” was still in its piano-ballad form. Once it reached its final format, it jumped into the fray as a potential first single.

“It’s kind of like one of those races on the Jumbotron in the middle of a baseball game where red pulls ahead, and then blue, and it just kind of kept going back and forth between probably three to five different songs,” she says.

Multiple parties ultimately agreed that “My Mistake” was the right choice.“When she started performing out, you could see that one kept rising to the

top,” says Sony Music Nashville chairman/CEO Gary Overton.Arista officially released it to radio via Play MPE on Feb. 2. Enough stations

went on it early that it charted a month before the official add date. “My Mis-take” is currently at No. 56 in its second week on Country Airplay. Sony believes it’s just the beginning of Cam’s story, which could take some different paths — she’s actually co-signed by Arista Nashville with RCA in New York. Whatever uncertainties that creates are right in line with the life lessons in “My Mistake.”

“When we’re really getting down to it,” says Cam, “the whole thing is about moving forward when you don’t have all the answers.”

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE FEBRUARY 26, 2015 | PAGE 2 OF 7

Cam’s ‘My Mistake’ Puts The Past Into Current Perspective

MAKIN’ TRACKS TOM ROLAND tom.roland@billboard.com

CAM

KR

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IN B

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When Brandy Clark teamed up with Dwight Yoakam on the Feb. 7 Grammy Awards to perform her album track “Hold My Hand,” it was a revelatory mo-ment for many in country radio. Based on the chatter on social media that night, many programmers discovered — or came to appreciate — Clark for the first time in that moment, even though her single “Stripes” got a bit of attention in 2013 when she was still signed to tiny indie label Slate Creek Records. (In No-vember 2014 she shifted to Warner Bros. Records, but was signed to the label’s Burbank division, not its Nashville branch.)

Some broadcasters posed telling questions on Facebook on Grammy night like this one from an assistant PD/music director: “Why does no one work Brandy Clark music?” That question raises another: Why should it matter?

With as much love as there appeared to be for Clark among country programmers in the wake of the Grammys, there was no corresponding spike in airplay for any of her songs in the week after the show, when “Hold My Hand” got just 11 spins on monitored country stations, six of those from one outlet (KRTY San Jose, Calif.).

Warner Bros. serviced “Hold My Hand” to radio via Play MPE the day after the show, but it’s unclear what radio formats it was emailed to and whether country was among them. (Clark’s Nashville team hadn’t gotten an answer about that from Burbank by press time.) Unusually, the Play MPE notification — which came with the subject line “Who is Brandy Clark?!” — included neither an impact date nor label contact information, giving it what one radio industry insider called “the softest possible launch.”

But the questions remain: If radio finds an act like Clark that it loves, why can’t or won’t it go off the menu and play something it’s not being “worked” by Nashville record promoters? And how much, if any, musical discovery is still happening at terrestrial radio outside the normal channels?

The answers center on some of the things radio is most often criticized for: politics, centralized programming decisions and busy programmers’ lack of time to devote to music discovery.

Veteran country radio consultant Joel Raab admits, “Sometimes music de-cisions are made for political reasons. So naturally songs that are ‘worked’ are often more likely to get airplay ... About two years ago I was on a music call with a station, and the moment happened when we all realized that our adds, drops, etc. were being too political. We continued to do the call by making the adds we thought were only the best for the audience at that moment and tuning out other factors. Some people got upset.

“Realistically, you can’t completely tune out the politics,” he continues. “[Radio and music companies] have to work together but never lose sight of the notion that the best music is what needs to go on the air.”

A country assistant PD/music director who works for one of the big three radio chains says, “For many of us, we don’t have the approval to just play a re-cord we love. It is the bane of corporate radio.” She says that just a few years ago, her station would have easily added an artist like Clark following an attention-grabbing awards show performance. Now, however, “We can’t do that anymore.

“We were much better [music] champions several years ago,” she says. “Not so much today. But then … we had the freedom to add songs without corporate oversight. It is my hope that radio can get back to that and programmers can

find artists that they believe are deserving of airplay. One of the best things in our profession is seeing a young artist you believe in go to the heights of the biz and knowing that you had a small hand in exposing them.”

Radio consultant Pam Shane, who works with many independently owned stations, says it’s more a question of time constraints than corporate oversight for her clients. “I think the principal reason radio in general wants to be worked is that people involved in music decisions have so much else to do that they no longer can spend the time listening, making comparisons and then choosing

intelligently to find music that will interest their lis-teners,” she says.

KPLX (the Wolf) Dallas assistant PD/music di-rector Smokey Rivers also cites lack of time on the programmers’ part for the lack of musical discovery. “It’s nice to know that if we are going to give up a valu-able portion of our playlist real estate that we’re not alone,” he says. “We want to know that there is some real substantial effort going on to give the artist and project some traction. Otherwise, we’re just preaching to our own choir about a song. While you may want to champion a single once in a while, most times you want to know that there is a plan going on behind it.”

Edison Research vp music and programming Sean Ross notes that programmers sticking to play-ing what’s being “worked” is an issue in every for-

mat, not just country. “Even with the phenomenal, a label has to follow up and impact a record or nothing happens,” he says. “Top 40 doesn’t play organically developing YouTube oddities … but when there’s a major [label] involved, and they ask for the order, it will play ‘Gangnam Style.’ ”

Ross dates “the end of the enterprising PD or MD” back to the time of the Eliot Spitzer payola crackdown. “Even though the real problem was PDs and groups playing ‘whatever it takes’ label priorities, it was somehow made to look like the PD who went off the menu had gone rogue,” he says of that time. “The irony was that these were songs that were being added for the right reasons — because listeners wanted them, and not because there was label money.

“In country, it’s probably worse because there are so many planes stacked up at any given time, waiting for half a year to even get out of lunar [rotation],” continues Ross. “Brandy Clark would be a 46-week process under the easiest circumstances. If the label doesn’t want to go through that, a PD doesn’t want to get screamed at for taking a slot from the label that does want the add.”

Shane thinks the rise of automation is another contributing factor for the dearth of musical discovery. “There is a lack of talking one on one with listen-ers in contemporary radio that leads to leaving them out of the equation,” she says. “If every station still had live jocks who take phone calls, then radio would hear lots more about people like Brandy.”

Rivers cites Nielsen’s Portable People Meter as another component. “We’re getting so much information now that reaffirms the old adage that ‘what you don’t play won’t hurt you’ that stations are sticking closer to home with famil-iar artists and themes … Programmers can’t spend a lot of time waiting for an artist or song to catch on.”

In next week’s column, we hear from one such county radio pro — KRTY GM Nate Deaton — who not only added “Hold My Hand” after Clark’s Grammy performance, but routinely goes off the menu to find hits on his own.

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE FEBRUARY 26, 2015 | PAGE 3 OF 7

Why Must Country Singles Be ‘Worked’ To Be Played?

THE STARK REPORT PHYLLIS STARK phyllis.stark@billboard.com

CLARK

promo guy, the vp of promotion and the CEO of the label [here]. It’s a little bit of a different level of pressure, but I learned a long time ago that I just have to be honest and do the best I can and use my gut. As long as I’m not telling them one thing and doing something else, I’m in good shape.

Country isn’t the only format that you oversee. With all of that attention coming to you from that business, how do you make sure that you’re still fo-cusing on other iHeart brands as well? You have to have really good people, and

so I have great program directors that handle different formats. My role is the stra-tegic question-asker, and I try to make sure that I’m as looped in as I can possibly be, but at the same time, they have to be able to do their job. As long as that hap-pens then the system works well.

How do you handle The Bobby Bones Show? You’re overseeing the local mar-ket here, but now you have to be thinking about a show that’s national in scope. I’ve spent a great deal of my career managing talent, so I don’t view it a lot dif-ferently than that. The number of people that we have to work with and the tools that we have for that show is certainly greater than what you would get in a local market, typically, and the exposure is at a higher level. I look at it almost like programming a dif-ferent radio station as well. It’s a totally different beast than any other radio station, but it also is really nicely aligned with what we do on WSIX as a whole. So I try to integrate it like a local show — I mean, it is a local show for Nashville — but at the same time, be mindful of what we may need in Boston or what we may need in Tampa.

When I listen, it seems like at every break he leaves a cliffhanger, and I’m assuming that that’s what you want him to do for the Portable People Meter. Teasing makes a big difference, and leaving the audience wanting more — you can’t give them the whole storyline. If you see television shows, especially dramas, they end with you wondering what’s going to happen next week. It’s not just for PPM, it’s for people’s entertainment. We want them to listen longer, so you do whatever you can to tell them what’s coming up, to give them a taste of what’s going to happen so it forces them to spend more time with us. That’s our goal, is to entertain at such a level that they keep com-ing back over and over and over. —Tom Roland

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE FEBRUARY 26, 2015 | PAGE 4 OF 7

Q U E ST I O N S

AnsweredMichael Bryan

Senior vp programming, iHeartMedia/Nashville@radiomb

With Country Radio Seminar underway in Nashville, tons of pro-grammers from the genre will naturally check out what’s airing on the dial in Music City, which means WSIX Nashville PD Michael Bryan will have his work under a microscope. The son of a Greenville, Tenn., broadcaster, Bryan’s journey has taken him to at least five states. He works with six stations in the Nashville cluster and is executive PD of The Bobby Bones Show, which this month marks two years in syndica-tion through Premiere Networks. A member of the 2015 class of Lead-ership Music, he’s a panelist at the Feb. 27 CRS session “Unlocking the Secrets to Successful Music Scheduling.”

What is it like programming a country station in Nashville during CRS? Programming a country station in Nashville as a whole is very in-teresting in comparison to programming it anywhere else because of the industry being here. All eyes and ears are on us at all times ... CRS isn’t any different. We always try to focus on the best thing to do for the audi-ence and not worry that there’s a couple extra thousand program direc-tors in town. You always want to impress industry folks, too, but really, it’s the audience that matters.

I imagine that there’s pressure in Nashville to add things that, in any other city, you wouldn’t be feeling as much. There’s pressure to add music no matter what radio station you’re at. The pressure is just from different sources here. So while it might be a regional promo guy in a different market, it might be the regional promo guy, the national

FIVE ADDED TO COUNTRY RADIO HALLCountry Radio Hall of Fame inductees were unveiled Feb. 25 during the open-ing ceremonies at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville with the newbies hearing their names read by surprise hosts Garth Brooks and Trisha Year-wood. The 2015 class, which will be inducted June 24, includes consultant Joel Raab; former WUSY Chattanooga , Tenn., GM/market manager Sammy George; KBEQ Kansas City, Mo., PD Mike Kennedy; KAJA San Antonio per-sonality Randy Carroll; and WMIL Milwaukee talent Karen Dallesandro.

Since Nashville began building the Music City Center, Mayor Karl Dean has annually suggested in opening remarks at Country Radio Seminar that the confab leave the Nashville Convention Center. It will leave in 2016 — but not for the MCC. Instead, CRS is headed to the Omni Nashville Hotel, a building that’s integrated with the Country Music Hall of Fame. Next year’s edition runs Feb. 7-10, a time slot that drew groans from CRS attendees: Feb. 7 is also the date of the Super Bowl. Syndicated morning show The Big D & Bubba won the national on-air per-sonality honor and WUSN Chicago was represented in two categories as

the Academy of Country Music unveiled its Radio Award winners for 2015. WUSN was named major-market radio station of the year, and Lisa Dent & Ramblin’ Ray took major- market air personality. Other winning person-alities included Big Dave, Chelsie and Statt-man, WUBE Cincinnati (large market); Steve & Gina, KXKT Omaha, Neb. (medium market); and Gator, Styckman and Cowboy Kyle, WUSY Chattanooga, Tenn. (small market). Radio stations include WWKA Orlando, Fla. (large market); WQMX Akron,Ohio (medium market); and KCLR Columbia, Mo. (small market).

Emmis chairman Jeff Smulyan was presented the Tom Rivers Humanitar-ian Award during opening ceremonies at the Country Radio Seminar, while Lady Antebellum accepted the Artist Humanitarian Honor. Lady A pointed out in its acceptance speech that it took a cue from country radio’s community service efforts, eventually establishing its own foundation, LadyAid. “We’re all a part of something bigger,” said band member Hillary Scott.

MIDWEEK NEWS UPDATE

BIG D & BUBBA

THIS WEEK

LAST WEEK

TWO WEEKS

AGOWKS ON CHART

TITLE Artist PRODUCER (SONGWRITER) IMPRINT / PROMOTION LABEL CERTIFIED

PEAK POSITION

l1 1 1 17 TAKE YOUR TIME ★★No. 1 (3 weeks)★★ Sam Hunt Z.CROWELL,S.MCANALLY (S.HUNT,J.OSBORNE,S.MCANALLY) MCA NASHVILLE

1

l2 2 4 26 MAKE ME WANNA Thomas Rhett J.JOYCE (THOMAS RHETT,B.BUTLER,L.MCCOY) VALORY 2

l3 5 5 17 LONELY TONIGHT Blake Shelton Featuring Ashley Monroe S.HENDRICKS (B.ANDERSON,R.HURD) WARNER BROS./WMN 3

4 3 2 17 I SEE YOU Luke Bryan J.STEVENS (L.BRYAN,L.LAIRD,A.GORLEY) CAPITOL NASHVILLE 1

5 4 3 23 SUN DAZE Florida Georgia Line J.MOI (C.R.BARLOWE,J.FRASURE,S.BUXTON,T.HUBBARD,B.KELLEY) REPUBLIC NASHVILLE 0 3

l6 6 10 26 MEAN TO ME Brett Eldredge L.LAIRD (B.ELDREDGE,SCOOTER CARUSOE) ATLANTIC/WMN 6

l7 10 12 21 AIN’T WORTH THE WHISKEY Cole Swindell M.CARTER (C.SWINDELL,A.SANDERS,J.MARTIN) WARNER BROS./WMN 7

l8 7 8 18 JUST GETTIN’ STARTED Jason Aldean M.KNOX (C. DESTEFANO,R.AKINS,A.GORLEY) BROKEN BOW 7

l9 9 11 37 LIKE A COWBOY Randy Houser D.GEORGE (R.HOUSER,B.LONG) STONEY CREEK 9

l10 12 13 7 HOMEGROWN Zac Brown Band J.JOYCE,Z.BROWN (Z.BROWN,W.DURRETTE,N.MOON) VARVATOS/REPUBLIC/BMLG/SOUTHERN GROUND 4

l11 8 9 26 DRINKING CLASS Lee Brice M.MCCLURE,K.JACOBS,L.BRICE (J.KEAR,D.FRASIER,E.M.HILL) CURB 6

l12 13 14 23 LONELY EYES Chris Young J.STROUD (J.BULFORD,J.MATTHEWS,L.VELTZ) RCA NASHVILLE 12

l13 15 16 26 HOMEGROWN HONEY Darius Rucker F.ROGERS (D.RUCKER,C.KELLEY,N.CHAPMAN) CAPITOL NASHVILLE 13

l14 17 17 19 SAY YOU DO Dierks Bentley R. COPPERMAN (M.RAMSEY,S.MCANALLY,T. ROSEN) CAPITOL NASHVILLE 14

15 11 6 23 TALLADEGA Eric Church J.JOYCE (E.CHURCH,L.LAIRD) EMI NASHVILLE 2

l16 18 19 28 TAKE IT ON BACK Chase Bryant D.GEORGE,C.BRYANT (C.BRYANT,T.L.JAMES,D.ALTMAN) RED BOW 16

l17 20 21 22 A GUY WALKS INTO A BAR Tyler Farr J.CATINO,J.KING (M.PEIRCE,J.SINGLETON,B.TURSI) COLUMBIA NASHVILLE 17

18 16 15 22 SOMETHING IN THE WATER Carrie Underwood M.BRIGHT (C.UNDERWOOD,C. DESTEFANO,BRETT JAMES) 19/ARISTA NASHVILLE 0 1

19 19 18 23 SHOTGUN RIDER Tim McGraw B.GALLIMORE,T.MCGRAW (H.LINDSEY,M.GREEN,T.VERGES) MCGRAW/BIG MACHINE 0 1

l20 21 20 28 WHAT WE AIN’T GOT Jake Owen J.MOI (T.J.GOFF,T.MEADOWS) RCA NASHVILLE 20

21 14 24 7 LITTLE RED WAGON Miranda Lambert F.LIDDELL,C.AINLAY,G.WORF (A.MAE,GINSBERG J.) RCA NASHVILLE 14

l22 22 26 7 SMOKE A Thousand Horses D.COBB (M.HOBBY,J.M.NITE,R.COPPERMAN) REPUBLIC NASHVILLE 22

l23 26 32 5 RAISE ‘EM UP ★★Airplay Gainer★★ Keith Urban Featuring Eric Church N.CHAPMAN,K.URBAN (J.JOHNSTON,J.STEELE,T.DOUGLAS) HIT RED/CAPITOL NASHVILLE

23

l24 23 22 12 GIRL CRUSH Little Big Town J.JOYCE (L.ROSE,L.MCKENNA,H.LINDSEY) CAPITOL NASHVILLE 22

l25 25 28 16 SHE DON’T LOVE YOU Eric Paslay M.ALTMAN (E.PASLAY,J.WAYNE) EMI NASHVILLE 25

Hot Country SongsBILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE FEBRUARY 26, 2015 | PAGE 5 OF 7

SALES, AIRPLAY & STREAMING DATA COMPILED BY

THIS WEEK

LAST WEEK

TWO WEEKS

AGOWKS ON CHART

TITLE Artist PRODUCER (SONGWRITER) IMPRINT / PROMOTION LABEL CERTIFIED

PEAK POSITION

l26 30 34 14 DON’T IT ★★Digital Gainer★★ Billy Currington D.HUFF (J.JOHNSTON,A.GORLEY,R.COPPERMAN) MERCURY

26

27 27 30 18 TRAILER HITCH Kristian Bush K.BUSH,T.TAPLEY (K.BUSH,B.BUSH,T.OWENS) STREAMSOUND 25

l28 31 35 21 LOVE YOU LIKE THAT Canaan Smith B.BEAVERS,J.ROBBINS (C.SMITH,B.BEAVERS,J.BEAVERS) MERCURY 28

l29 32 39 13 LOVE ME LIKE YOU MEAN IT Kelsea Ballerini F.G.WHITEHEAD (K.BALLERINI,J.KERR,F.G.WHITEHEAD,L.CARPENTER) BLACK RIVER 29

l30 35 43 3 WILD CHILD Kenny Chesney With Grace Potter B.CANNON,K.CHESNEY (K.CHESNEY,S.MCANALLY,J.OSBORNE) BLUE CHAIR/COLUMBIA NASHVILLE 30

31 29 29 17 FREESTYLE Lady Antebellum N.CHAPMAN,LADY ANTEBELLUM (D.HAYWOOD,C.KELLEY,H.SCOTT,S.MCANALLY) CAPITOL NASHVILLE 24

l32 36 38 16 BABY BE MY LOVE SONG Easton Corbin C.CHAMBERLAIN (J.COLLINS,BRETT JAMES) MERCURY 32

l33 37 33 5 LITTLE TOY GUNS Carrie Underwood M.BRIGHT (C.UNDERWOOD,C. DESTEFANO,H.LINDSEY) 19/ARISTA NASHVILLE 30

l34 39 42 4 DIAMOND RINGS AND OLD BARSTOOLS Tim McGraw With Catherine Dunn B.GALLIMORE,T.MCGRAW (L.LAIRD,B.DEAN,J.SINGLETON) MCGRAW/BIG MACHINE 34

l35 34 36 14 LAY LOW Josh Turner F.ROGERS (R.COPPERMAN,T.MARTIN,M.NESLER) MCA NASHVILLE 29

l36 38 37 8 ONE HELL OF AN AMEN Brantley Gilbert D.HUFF (B.GILBERT,M.DEKLE,B.DAVIS) VALORY 35

l37 RE-ENTRY 3 I’M NOT GONNA MISS YOU Glen Campbell J.RAYMOND (J.RAYMOND,G.CAMPBELL) BIG MACHINE 21

l38 40 40 19 DRUNK AMERICANS Toby Keith T.KEITH,B.PINSON (B.CLARK,B.DIPIERO,S.MCANALLY) SHOW DOG NASHVILLE 33

l39 42 31 3 I’M TO BLAME ★★Streaming Gainer★★ Kip Moore B.JAMES (K.MOORE,J.WEAVER,W.DAVIS) MCA NASHVILLE

31

l40 49 — 3 CRUSHIN’ IT Brad Paisley L.WOOTEN,B.PAISLEY (B.PAISLEY,K.LOVELACE,L.T.MILLER) ARISTA NASHVILLE 40

l41 43 45 7 RIOT Rascal Flatts J.DEMARCUS,RASCAL FLATTS (J.BOYER,S.HAZE) BIG MACHINE 40

l42 44 46 11 HARD TO BE COOL Joe Nichols M.J.CONES (R.HATCH,J.SELLERS) RED BOW 37

l43 46 49 7 HELL OF A NIGHT Dustin Lynch M.J.CONES (Z.CROWELL,A.SANDERS,J.BOYER) BROKEN BOW 43

l44 NEW 1 LIKE A WRECKING BALL ★★Hot Shot Debut★★ Eric Church J.JOYCE (E.CHURCH,C.BEATHARD) EMI NASHVILLE

44

45 41 41 17 MAKE YOU MISS ME Sam Hunt Z.CROWELL,S.MCANALLY (S.HUNT,J.OSBORNE,M.RAMSEY) MCA NASHVILLE 32

l46 47 48 7 GOING OUT LIKE THAT Reba T.BROWN (B.HAYSLIP,R.AKINS,J.SELLERS) NASH ICON/VALORY 28

l47 50 50 8 TROUBLE Gloriana M.SERLETIC (R.REINERT,M.GOSSIN,R.COPPERMAN,J.M.NITE) EMBLEM/WARNER BROS./WAR 42

l48 NEW 1 RIDE Chase Rice C. DESTEFANO (J.SOMERS-MORALES,D.C.TARPLEY JR.) DACK JANIELS/COLUMBIA NASHVILLE 48

49 33 — 2 I GOT THE BOY Jana Kramer S.HENDRICKS (T.NICHOLS,C.HARRINGTON,J.L.SPEARS) ELEKTRA NASHVILLE/WAR 33

l50 RE-ENTRY 4 SIPPIN’ ON FIRE Florida Georgia Line J.MOI (R.CLAWSON,M.DRAGSTREM,C.TAYLOR) REPUBLIC NASHVILLE 10

For week ending Month TK, 2015. Figures are rounded. Compiled from a national sample of retail store and rack sales reports collected and provided by Nielsen Music.

For inquiries about any Nielsen Music data, please contact Josh Bennett at 615-807-1338 or josh.bennett@nielsen.com

The week’s most popular country songs, ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen Music, sales data as compiled by Nielsen Music and streaming activity data from online music sources tracked by Nielsen Music. Descending titles below No. 25 are moved to recurrent after 20 weeks.

COUNTRY MARKET WATCHA Weekly National Music Sales Report

Hot Country SongsBILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE FEBRUARY 26, 2015 | PAGE 6 OF 7

ALBUMSDIGITAL

ALBUMS*DIGITAL TRACKS

This Week 458,000 172,000 2,186,000

Last Week 550,000 173,000 2,349,000

Change -16.7% -0.6% -6.9%

This Week Last Year 887,000 308,000 2,692,000

Change -48.4% -44.2% -18.8%

*Digital album sales are also counted within album sales.

Weekly Unit SalesYear-Over-Year Album Sales2014 2015 CHANGE

Albums 4,499,000 3,828,000 -14.9%

Digital Tracks 22,268,000 18,179,000 -18.4%

YEAR-TO-DATE

Overall Unit Sales

2014 2015 CHANGE

Physical 2,918,000 2,361,000 9.0%

Digital 1,581,000 1,466,000 -7.3%

Sales by Album Format

SALES, AIRPLAY & STREAMING DATA COMPILED BY

’15

’14

DIGITAL TRACKS SALES

’15

’14

4.5 million

3.8 million

000.0 million

’14

’13

18.2 million

22.7 million

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1 1 17 TAKE YOUR TIME SAM HUNT (MCA Nashville/UMGN)

l2 5 6 HOMEGROWN ZAC BROWN BAND (Southern Ground/Varvatos/Republic/BMLG)

3 3 21 MAKE ME WANNA THOMAS RHETT (Valory/BMLG)

l4 8 20 AIN’T WORTH THE WHISKEY COLE SWINDELL (Warner Bros./WMN)

5 4 18 LONELY TONIGHT BLAKE SHELTON FEAT. ASHLEY MONROE (Warner Bros./WMN)

6 6 16 I SEE YOU LUKE BRYAN (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

7 7 22 SUN DAZE FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE (Republic Nashville/BMLG)

8 9 24 DRINKING CLASS LEE BRICE (Curb)

9 10 30 BURNIN’ IT DOWN JASON ALDEAN (Broken Bow/BBMG)

10 12 16 JUST GETTIN’ STARTED JASON ALDEAN (Broken Bow/BBMG)

11 13 9 GIRL CRUSH LITTLE BIG TOWN (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

12 2 6 LITTLE RED WAGON MIRANDA LAMBERT (RCA Nashville/SMN)

l13 17 18 LONELY EYES CHRIS YOUNG (RCA Nashville/SMN)

14 16 14 A GUY WALKS INTO A BAR TYLER FARR (Columbia Nashville/SMN)

15 14 25 MEAN TO ME BRETT ELDREDGE (Atlantic/WMN)

l16 22 4 SMOKE A THOUSAND HORSES (Republic Nashville/BMLG)

17 11 22 TALLADEGA ERIC CHURCH (EMI Nashville/UMGN)

18 19 24 LIKE A COWBOY RANDY HOUSER (Stoney Creek/BBMG)

19 15 21 SOMETHING IN THE WATER CARRIE UNDERWOOD (19/Arista Nashville/SMN)

20 21 9 SAY YOU DO DIERKS BENTLEY (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

21 20 23 SHOTGUN RIDER TIM MCGRAW (McGraw/Big Machine/BMLG)

l22 RE-ENTRY I’M NOT GONNA MISS YOU GLEN CAMPBELL (Big Machine/BMLG)

23 23 22 HOMEGROWN HONEY DARIUS RUCKER (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

l24 29 17 LOVE YOU LIKE THAT CANAAN SMITH (Mercury/UMGN)

25 25 10 SHE DON’T LOVE YOU ERIC PASLAY (EMI Nashville/UMGN)

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26 24 26 WHAT WE AIN’T GOT JAKE OWEN (RCA Nashville/SMN)

l27 RE-ENTRY RIDE CHASE RICE (Dack Janiels)

l28 34 2 LOVE ME LIKE YOU MEAN IT KELSEA BALLERINI (Black River)

29 28 36 LEAVE THE NIGHT ON SAM HUNT (MCA Nashville/UMGN)

30 26 6 FISHIN’ IN THE DARK NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND (Warner Bros./Rhino)

l31 RE-ENTRY LIKE A WRECKING BALL ERIC CHURCH (EMI Nashville/UMGN)

32 31 6 TRAILER HITCH KRISTIAN BUSH (Streamsound)

33 32 6 TAKE IT ON BACK CHASE BRYANT (Red Bow/BBMG)

l34 RE-ENTRY DON’T IT BILLY CURRINGTON (Mercury/UMGN)

35 27 29 GOD MADE GIRLS RAELYNN (Valory/BMLG)

36 33 65 PLAY IT AGAIN LUKE BRYAN (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

37 35 5 LITTLE TOY GUNS CARRIE UNDERWOOD (19/Arista Nashville/SMN)

38 37 5 RAISE ‘EM UP KEITH URBAN FEAT. ERIC CHURCH (Hit Red/Capitol Nashville)

39 36 65 THIS IS HOW WE ROLL FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE FEAT. LUKE BRYAN (Republic Nashville/BMLG)

40 38 26 BREAK UP IN A SMALL TOWN SAM HUNT (MCA Nashville/UMGN)

41 18 2 I GOT THE BOY JANA KRAMER (Elektra Nashville/WMN)

42 39 137 CRUISE FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE (Republic Nashville/BMLG)

43 40 32 DIRT FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE (Republic Nashville/BMLG)

44 41 40 BARTENDER LADY ANTEBELLUM (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

45 43 36 AMERICAN KIDS KENNY CHESNEY (Blue Chair/Columbia Nashville/SMN)

l46 NEW BREAK UP WITH HIM OLD DOMINION (ReeSmack/Thirty Tigers)

47 45 43 DRUNK ON A PLANE DIERKS BENTLEY (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

48 47 27 NEON LIGHT BLAKE SHELTON (Warner Bros./WMN)

49 46 50 I DON’T DANCE LEE BRICE (Curb)

l50 RE-ENTRY MAKE YOU MISS ME SAM HUNT (MCA Nashville/UMGN)

Top-selling paid download country songs compiled from sales reports collected and provided by Nielsen Music. Charts update weekly on Thurdays at www.Billboard.Biz/charts. Copyright 2015, Prometheus Global Media, LLC and Nielsen Music, Inc. All rights reserved.

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l1 NEW 1 AARON WATSON The UnderdogBIG LABEL 400237/THIRTY TIGERS 1

l2 2 1 17 SAM HUNT MontevalloMCA NASHVILLE 021502/UMGN 1

l3 NEW 1 STEVE EARLE & THE DUKES TerraplaneNEW WEST 6328* 3

4 3 2 20 JASON ALDEAN Old Boots, New DirtBROKEN BOW 7105/BBMG 1 1

l5 NEW 1 THE MAVERICKS MonoVALORY MV0200A/BMLG 5

6 4 4 19 FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE Anything GoesREPUBLIC NASHVILLE /BMLG 0 1

7 6 3 11 CARRIE UNDERWOOD Greatest Hits: Decade #119/ARISTA NASHVILLE 500876/SMN 0 1

8 7 8 81 LUKE BRYAN Crash My PartyCAPITOL NASHVILLE 018733/UMGN 2 1

l9 15 11 27 CHASE RICE Ignite The NightCOLUMBIA NASHVILLE 22573/DACK JANIELS 1

10 5 7 38 MIRANDA LAMBERT PlatinumRCA NASHVILLE 379278/SMN 0 1

11 9 5 54 ERIC CHURCH The OutsidersEMI NASHVILLE 019402*/UMGN 1 1

12 1 — 2 BLACKBERRY SMOKE Holding All The Roses3 LEGGED RECORDS/ROUNDER 613616*/CONCORD 1

13 8 6 15 GARTH BROOKS Man Against MachinePEARL/RCA NASHVILLE 501135/SMN 1 1

14 14 13 40 BRANTLEY GILBERT Just As I AmVALORY BG0200A/BMLG 0 1

15 12 10 15 ZAC BROWN BAND Greatest Hits So Far...ROAR/SOUTHERN GROUND/ATLANTIC 546369/AG 5

16 13 9 21 BLAKE SHELTON BRINGING BACK THE SUNSHINEWARNER BROS. 544918/WMN 0 1

l17 19 20 53 COLE SWINDELL Cole SwindellWARNER BROS. 541372/WMN 2

18 11 12 23 GEORGE STRAIT The Cowboy Rides Away: Live From AT&T StadiumMCA NASHVILLE 021477/UMGN 2

19 21 18 41 STURGILL SIMPSON Metamodern Sounds In Country MusicHIGH TOP MOUNTAIN 002*/THIRTY TIGERS 8

l20 NEW 1 SOUNDTRACK Glen Campbell: I’ll Be MeBIG MACHINE GC0100/BMLG 20

21 10 — 2 ROBERT EARL KEEN Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass SessionsDUALTONE 1685* 10

22 16 17 22 KENNY CHESNEY The Big RevivalBLUE CHAIR/COLUMBIA NASHVILLE 306274/SMN 1

23 20 15 18 LITTLE BIG TOWN Pain KillerCAPITOL NASHVILLE 021360*/UMGN 3

24 18 16 24 LEE BRICE I Dont DanceCURB 79392* 1

25 17 21 23 TIM MCGRAW Sundown Heaven TownMCGRAW/BIG MACHINE TM0200A/BMLG 1

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1 1 8 TAKE YOUR TIME SAM HUNT

l2 – 1 FANCY REBA MCENTIRE

l3 3 11 I SEE YOU LUKE BRYAN

4 2 35 LEAVE THE NIGHT ON SAM HUNT

5 5 52 THIS IS HOW WE ROLL FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE FEAT. LUKE BRYAN

l6 14 59 YOU BELONG WITH ME TAYLOR SWIFT

l7 8 18 SUN DAZE FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE

8 7 99 CRUISE FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE

9 6 48 PLAY IT AGAIN LUKE BRYAN

10 9 33 DIRT FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE

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11 11 61 BOTTOMS UP BRANTLEY GILBERT

l12 13 5 MAKE ME WANNA THOMAS RHETT

13 12 12 TALLADEGA ERIC CHURCH

14 10 21 SOMETHING IN THE WATER CARRIE UNDERWOOD

15 15 15 DRINKING CLASS LEE BRICE

16 16 80 THAT’S MY KIND OF NIGHT LUKE BRYAN

17 18 68 WE ARE NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER TAYLOR SWIFT

18 17 5 LONELY TONIGHT BLAKE SHELTON FEAT. ASHLEY MONROE

19 19 16 SHOTGUN RIDER TIM MCGRAW

20 21 3 MEAN TO ME BRETT ELDREDGE

Country Streaming Songs -The week’s top Country streamed radio songs, on-demand songs and videos on leading online music services. Charts update weekly on Thurdays at www.Billboard.Biz/charts. Copyright 2015, Prometheus Global Media, LLC and Nielsen Music, Inc. All rights reserved.

BUILDING AIRPLAY GAINERSTITLE Label Artist GAIN

DON’T IT Mercury Billy Currington +285

DIAMOND RINGS AND OLD BARSTOOLS McGraw/Big Machine Tim McGraw W/Catherine Dunn +285

TAKE YOUR TIME MCA Nashville Sam Hunt +271

WILD CHILD Blue Chair/Columbia Nashville Kenny Chesney w/ Grace Potter +264

LITTLE TOY GUNS 19/Arista Nashville Carrie Underwood +263

AIN’T WORTH THE WHISKEY Warner Bros./WMN Cole Swindell +227

RAISE ‘EM UP Hit Red/Capitol Nashville Keith Urban Feat. Eric Church +223

SAY YOU DO Capitol Nashville Dierks Bentley +212

HOMEGROWN HONEY Capitol Nashville Darius Rucker +188

SIPPIN’ ON FIRE Republic Nashville Florida Georgia Line +183

Building Gainers reflects titles with the top increases in plays from Monday through 5pm ET Wednesday, as compared to the same period in the previous week, according to Nielsen Music.

TOP COUNTRY ALBUMSCOUNTRY DIGITAL SONGS

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE FEBRUARY 26, 2015 | PAGE 7 OF 7

STREAMING DATA COMPILED BY

The week’s most popular country albums, ranked by sales data as compiled by Nielsen Music. Albums are defined as current if they are less than 18 months old or older than 18 months but still residing in the Billboard 200’s top 100. Charts update weekly on Thurdays at www.Billboard.Biz/charts. Copyright 2015, Prometheus Global Media, LLC and Nielsen Music, Inc. All rights reserved.

COUNTRY STREAMING SONGS

SALES, AIRPLAY & STREAMING DATA COMPILED BY

SALES, AIRPLAY & STREAMING DATA COMPILED BY