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BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS EDITED BY TOM ROLAND, tom.roland@billboard.com JANUARY 15, 2015 | PAGE 1 OF 7

INSIDEMakin’ Tracks: Keith Urban/Eric Church’s ‘Raise ’Em Up’

>page 2

Stark Report: Cledus T. Judd Retires From

Satires >page 3

Questions Answered: Red Bow Promo VP Renee Leymon

>page 4

Kenny Chesney Fills In

His Datebook >page 4

Signed, Sealed,

Delivered: He’s Willie

>page 4

Reba McEntire scores a career-high bow at No. 28 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart with “Going Out Like That” (Nash Icon/Valory), her first single in more than three years and the lead track from her as-yet untitled new album, due in April. The song surpasses the 2011 Country Music Hall of Fame honoree’s previous top start, set when “If You See Him/If You See Her” (with Brooks & Dunn) opened at No. 32 in 1998. ( The chart was then based solely on airplay; it has measured airplay, sales and streaming since Oct. 20, 2012.) “That” also marks McEntire’s career-high digital sales week and highest rank on Country Dig-ital Songs, where it enters at No. 13 with 21,000 downloads sold, according to Nielsen Music. She set her previous best rank and sales sum when “Consider Me Gone” debuted and peaked at No. 19 with 19,000 sold (Jan. 23, 2010). McEntire’s new song is the first chart appearance for the recently launched Nash Icon imprint, a joint venture between Cumulus and the Big Machine Label Group. Other artists in the Nash Icon stable include Martina McBride and Ronnie Dunn.

Meanwhile, Sam Hunt lands his first No. 1 on Country Digi-

tal Songs with “Take Your Time” (MCA Nashville), which blasts 13-1 with 34,000 sold (up 39 percent). “Time” also jumps 24-17 on Country Streaming Songs chart (668,000 U.S. streams, up 28 percent), claiming top Digital and Streaming Gainer applause

on Hot Country Songs (22-15). Upping Hunt’s profile in the tracking week: the Jan. 6 announcement of Lady Ante-bellum’s Wheels Up 2015 Tour, with Hunt and Hunter Hayes. The trek kicks off Feb. 28 in Sweden before ar-riving in the United States in May. Hunt also headlines his own Lipstick Graffiti Tour, which begins Jan. 29 in West Hol-lywood, Calif.

Carrie Underwood matches her longest No. 1 reign on Hot Country Songs with “Something in the Water” (19/Arista Nashville), which holds for a sixth cumulative week atop the chart.

She first led for six weeks with “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” her first promoted country single, which peaked on the chart dated Jan. 21, 2006. “Water” additionally logs a 15th straight week at No. 1 on the Hot Christian Songs chart (viewable at Billboard.com/biz). It sold 32,000 downloads in the week ending Jan. 11, with to-date sales of 746,000.

McENTIRE

WADE JESSEN wade.jessen@billboard.com

Country MID- WEEK

UPDATE

Career-Best Start For McEntire; Hunt Posts First Digital No. 1

When Sony/ATV song-plugger Abbey Adams sent “Raise ’Em Up” to Keith Urban in 2013, the email came with a simple subject line: “Song of the year.” Which, in most cases, would have set up unrealistic expectations and doomed it from the start.

In this instance, however, “Raise ’Em Up” lived up to the hype, and Urban’s version, a collaboration with Eric Church, is now a single, building on the sen-sitive qualities of the attachment on Adams’ note.

The GarageBand demo featured the gritty voice of The Cadillac Three’s singer/songwriter Jaren Johnston (“Beachin’,” “Sunshine & Whiskey”) atop a folky, mysteri-ous acoustic guitar bed. The song strung together a list of things that people might raise in the course of a lifetime, including sails, fists, um-brellas and children. There was no actual storyline, just the passing im-ages, arranged in a way that moved from youth to senior status.

“I was just floored by the lyricism of it, the atmosphere of it and just the way the song made me feel,” says Urban.

“Raise ’Em Up” also hinted at his own past. The descending melody at the start of the chorus is similar to the tones that launch the verses of Urban’s break-through single, 2002’s “Somebody Like You.”

“Subconsciously, I might have found myself thinking it seems like a song I would do,” he says with a laugh.

He called Johnston that night, vowing to record it. The guitar groove, set in an open-B tuning, had been Johnston’s from the start. So was the title. But the song’s lyrical pieces owe a huge debt to the co-writers on that particular songwriting session at the former EMI building on Music Row. Johnston and Jeffrey Steele (“What Hurts the Most,” “Me and My Gang”) played guitars in the room while Tom Douglas (“The House That Built Me,” “I Run to You”) logged the words on his laptop.

The easy route for a song called “Raise ’Em Up” would have been to make it a barroom celebration, but all three wanted to make it something more unusual. Johnston had the opening salvos — raising “a lighter on a Saturday night” and using a lift kit on “Daddy’s old pickup truck” — and a litany of other ideas were raised in the ensuing two hours.

“Tom started hitting me with the ‘black umbrellas in the pouring rain’ and all that shit, and it was just crazy,” recalls Johnston.

That lonely picture led Douglas and Steele into a jag about the Kris Krist-offerson-penned Johnny Cash song “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” and they threw that in, too, in a verse that alluded to the death of a soldier.

“Jaren’s looking at us like, ‘What the hell is this that’s so important that we have to put it in the song?’ ” Steele says. “I was like, ‘Dude, just trust us. This needs to be in here.’ We were having our old-man moment, you know.”

Johnston wasn’t so much opposed to the line as its location: When it was originally offered, it was part of the first chorus. “We were kind of going into the funeral vibe,” he says. “I was like, ‘Man, this is a little too dark to be the first chorus.’ I knew we were going to write a different chorus every time.”

Ultimately, “Raise ’Em Up” found its ideal path in the opening chorus with a vacation for a man who takes a wife, has some babies and raises them up, too.

It was a destination the writers hadn’t expected to reach when they started.“A lot of people really like to map out where a song’s going to go before you

write it,” observes Douglas. “I think it gives us all a little more spontaneity if you don’t do that.”

It didn’t have a bridge, so Johnston added an eerie “whoa-oh” element when he cut the demo, and he gave Urban a heads-up that Adams would be sending the demo his way.

It was the lyric about babies that helped seal the deal for Urban. For him, it related to his life with actress Nicole Kidman. “We bought a piece of land out in Franklin, [Tenn.] and we had two babies, so that verse hit home really perfectly,” he says.

But he also thought his Australian background could make the patriotic images in that dark second verse a stumbling block for American lis-teners. Urban asked Eric Church to give it a listen and consider doing that verse. After he heard it, Church

sent back a terse email: “F— you.” But it wasn’t a dismissal: Church was actu-ally jealous that he hadn’t written it. “It’s just so cool and very abstract,” says Church. “I wished it was mine.”

The “Sunday Morning” reference nailed it for Church — “Kristofferson is my Johnny Cash,” he says — and he contributed his vocals at Blackbird Studios the same day Urban and co-producer Nathan Chapman laid out the basic tracks. Church elongated a few words — “You got a vooooice/You got a chooooice/Go make some nooooise” — that subtly highlight the value of integrity. “It wasn’t something that I thought I was trying to make a statement,” he says. “It was me not knowing the words all that well and just kind of looking for it.” Church also stuck around to layer the “whoa-oh” tag with Urban and Chapman.

Chapman passed the recording along to engineer Mike Shipley (Aerosmith, Alison Krauss + Union Station), who finished mixing it just a day or two be-fore he died in July 2013. “This was either the last or the second-to-last song he ever worked on,” says Chapman. “It was kind of surreal to have that lyric at the tail end of a such an incredible career.”

Other unusual developments occurred around “Raise ’Em Up.” The next time Johnston, Douglas and Steele convened, they discussed some alternate guitar fingerings for the song and ended up writing “Meanwhile Back at Mama’s.” Tim McGraw and Faith Hill cut that one, and it’s now up for best country duo/group performance at the Grammy Awards, competing with “Raise ’Em Up,” which got nominated even before it became a single.

So while Adams’ song of the year prediction may not have come true yet, “Raise ’Em Up” has already received a Grammy stamp even before it’s gotten into most country stations’ rotations. And it’s appropriate that its release came Jan. 12, the day after another awards show, the Golden Globes. “Raise ’Em Up” is, after all, a series of small pictures.

“We were able to hit upon what I would say was sort of a cinematic feel to the song,” says Urban. “I really wanted the song to sound like that sort of letterbox look that you get with a movie.”

In this case, the plot is still unfolding. But that Grammy nod suggests it’s living up to the hype.

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE JANUARY 15, 2015 | PAGE 2 OF 7

Urban Goes To Church To Finish Grammy Nominee ‘Raise ’Em Up’

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

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Last month in Nashville, a beaming Cledus T. Judd walked the red carpet at the American Country Countdown Awards with his 10-year-old daughter, Caitlyn. He was happily promoting his latest parody song, “Luke Bryan,” a collabora-tion with Colt Ford sung to the tune of “Blurred Lines.” Inside the show, his fellow stars warmly greeted him, including Kenny Chesney and Luke Bryan himself, who sweetly took time to visit with Caitlyn.

In his heart, however, Judd knew he was done with the performing end of the music business after a 20-plus-year comedy career that landed him 25 videos on CMT, nu-merous record deals, a spot on tours with many country superstars and sales of more than 2 million records (ac-cording to Judd).

“Looking around at that awards show, I knew my time was probably up,” he confesses in an emotional interview with Billboard Mid-Week Country Update. “I didn’t want to be the guy that’s still hanging on, poor old Judd play-ing another fire convention.” Still, he says, “I wanted my daughter to feel it one more time. I wanted her to know that carpet is almost unattainable to millions who want to walk it. And Cledus T. Judd walked it a whole bunch of times.”

It was the combination of turning 50 last month, getting baptized in 2014 and his dedication to being the best possible father to Caitlyn that ul-timately made up his mind. Just a few weeks later, he made his plans to retire from the music business known in a brutally honest New Year’s Day Facebook post in which he referenced his dysfunctional upbring-ing; his subsequent depression, past suicide attempts and drug abuse; his failed marriages; his early struggles to make it in the business; and his mother’s current battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Yet instead of being depress-ing, the post was uplifting, spiritual and packed with gratitude.

But his retirement doesn’t mean he won’t still be in the spotlight. Judd plans to continue hosting his morning show on country WTCR Huntington, W.Va., where he has worked since 2012 after a successful stint in mornings at WQYK Tampa, Fla. He’ll also still come to Nashville — where he remains signed to Warner/Chappell and management firm AmpliFLY Entertainment — for song-writing sessions. But rather than performing, he plans to embark on a new ca-reer as a motivational speaker and serve a higher purpose than the pursuit of “money, fame and chicks.”

“When I was at my lowest point in life and with no one around, God had his hand on my shoulder the entire time,” wrote Judd in his post. “He was leading me. He was guiding me, he was watching over me through it all, and now it is my turn to return the favor.”

He’s being supported for his decision by industry friends like Rascal Flatts’ Gary LeVox, Caitlyn’s godfather, who sent Judd a text so uplifting Judd can’t read it out loud without tearing up.

Judd is also writing his autobiography, in which he plans to share all the highs and lows of his life, as well as stories about celebrity friends like Toby Keith and Vince Gill that involve extraordinary acts of kindness. His experiences with drugs won’t be off limits in the book. After a period of time when he says he couldn’t even go out to a golf game without a pocketful of cocaine, Judd says he has now been clean for nearly 11 years.

The decision to stop performing music has been difficult, he admits, but he says, “I’m completely at peace with it, and I didn’t think that I ever would be.

“The music business is such a drug. It pushes your ego and gives you a feel-ing of self-importance, [and] I love it with a passion,” he continues. “I love the people in it. I love the friendships I’ve made. The Rolodex in my phone I wouldn’t trade it for $10 million … But I can’t dabble in something that’s so important.”

Ultimately, Judd says, “I just lost the desire to go stand on the back of a hay truck and sing ‘If Shania Was Mine’ at 50.”

While Judd is best-known for his parody songs, he has also landed numerous cuts as a songwriter of more se-rious fare, including an expected song on Tyler Farr’s next album and cuts by Rascal Flatts, The Crabb Family, Craig Morgan and Brian McKnight. “The music busi-ness, they have me pigeonholed,” he says. “But there’s a much bigger side to me than just standing up singing ‘How Do You Milk a Cow?’ I want to be able to share that with people. Mainly, I just want to motivate people.”

He got a taste of that when CMT aired his episode of Inside Fame in 2004. “I got a letter from a woman who had moved from Seattle to Nashville and that weekend had called her parents to come drive her home because she couldn’t make it [in the music business],” he recalls. “While she was packing her clothes she watched my In-

side Fame. Her parents were already seven hours away from Seattle, and she called them and said, ‘Go home.’ That’s the impact that I want to have on peo-ple’s lives.”

His own story is similar. He was flat broke and crashing at singer Daron Norwood’s Nashville home when he decided in 1993 to give up on his dream. He had already called his mother and asked her to meet him at the Greyhound station because he was coming home to Georgia. “Forty-five minutes later I heard Tim McGraw’s ‘Indian Outlaw’ on the radio. I wrote ‘Indian In-Laws’ in about 15 minutes, and the rest is history.”

Judd went on to essentially become the “Weird Al” Yankovic of country music, writing such well-know parodies as “My Cellmate Thinks I’m Sexy,” “I Love NASCAR,” “Man of Constant Borrow” and “It’s a Great Day to Be a Guy.” He often convinced Nashville stars to perform on the songs and appear in the videos with him, something he still marvels at. “I’ve sang with just about 90 percent of that town: Vince, Toby, Wynonna, Darryl Worley. I have no clue how that happened. None. I can’t sing a lick.”

Looking back, he says, “If I had quit, I never would have known what it was like to play the Grand Ole Opry and stand up there in that circle of wood. I never would have known what it was like to tour.”

The man who goes by Barry Poole in his civilian life says inventing the char-acter of Cledus T. Judd “saved my life … I was a lost soul.

“I never really won a lot of awards, but you’ll never meet a man more happy to have had a seat,” he says. “You’ll never meet someone that’s more appreciative.”These days, the once restless Judd says, “I’m probably about as normal and peace-ful as I’ve ever been … I searched for happiness my whole life in million-dollar houses and $100,000 cars, and I finally found it inside a $5 Bible. I got baptized about six months ago, and I left about 49 years of misery in 3 feet of water.”

Now,during the next phase of his career, “If I’m going to leave my daughter, and my radio station and my mother and my basketball coaching and my golf game, it’s going to be to make a difference,” says Judd, adding, “I want my daugh-ter to look at me and go, ‘My dad is trying to make a difference in other people’s lives’ … Even if it never happens, I did it for the right reasons.”

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE JANUARY 15, 2015 | PAGE 3 OF 7

Exclusive: Cledus T. Judd On Bowing Out Of The Music Biz

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

JUDD

Did your dad’s influence make you more interested or less inter-ested in the music business? Oh, my gosh. I sold real estate for like 18 years, and I wanted to be in the mu-sic business so badly. I kept saying, “Dad, call a friend. Make me your assistant. Do something and get me in.” And he wouldn’t do it. He said, “This is a hard business, and if you’re going to do it, you’re going to do it on your own.” I was pretty mad at him then, but I respect that now. I look back and think if I had done it any other way, I wouldn’t have ap-preciated what I did do, which was

go answer phones at Arista Records back for Tim DuBois as a temp. Dreams do come true, right?

Why promotion? Did you have a specific interest in that? I did not. I think it’s divine intervention, but when I was answering telephones, I was also like the A&R assistant, and I knew that wasn’t for me when I would go to lunch and would come back and have a full voicemail of people who want to be singers and songwriters. Watching what everybody did from a bird’s eye view of being a receptionist was really beneficial to me. At the time, Jack Weston was still in promotion, and Bobby Kraig as well. Watching the two of them was kind of like a halo moment where you’d go, “This is what I was meant to do.”

How do you detox from the job? I watch a lot of Judge Judy and lay on the couch and kind of veg. I travel a lot, so it’s difficult, but when I’m home, I see my grandchildren a lot, and those kinds of things rejuvenate me to get out there and fight again. We’re not curing cancer out here. It’s art, and you never know what canvas you’re painting on is going to hit, but it could hit really big, and it’s fun to kind of watch that happen.

It’s not curing cancer, but by the same token, I can’t think of anything that’s been more powerful on a really bad day than music. Oh, it is so healing, and that’s the reward from it. I would almost feel guilty if I got to have this much fun and it didn’t do something for human beings. It saved me a lot of times in my life. The right song in the right time got me through my teenage years. It’s such a healing thing. Music is probably my favorite thing in life, besides my children and my grandchildren. —Tom Roland

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE JANUARY 15, 2015 | PAGE 4 OF 7

Q U E ST I O N S

AnsweredRenee LeymonVP of promotion, Red Bow

@ReneeLeymon

With a lengthy history at Arista and Lyric Street, Renee Leymon started a new promotion chapter when she took the vp reins — un-expectedly, as it turns out — at the BBR Music Group’s Red Bow im-print in late 2012. The label has landed two No. 1 singles with Joe Nichols since its launch and worked Chase Bryant’s debut to No. 13 on the Country Airplay chart dated Jan. 24. Her father, Ron Bledsoe, was vp operations for Columbia in the early 1970s and produced the classic “You Never Even Called Me by My Name.” Leymon is pass-ing her knowledge along, too — she has been on the agenda commit-tee and the board for CRS.

Red Bow was a brand-new label when you took the gig. What made you want it? I was trying for whatever — if I could just be a regional I’d be happy with that, just because I believe in the philosophy of [BBR Music Group CEO/president Benny Brown], and I really respect what he’s done as an independent label. It’s hard not to be impressed. And [BBR executive vp Jon Loba] said, “You can’t be a regional at the company.” And then he looked at me and said, “Because you’re going to be the vp!” I just went crazy. I never walk by Benny’s office [and see] that he’s not playing music and listening to songs and paying attention to our artists. It’s just amazing to watch it all, really. It’s different from any other label I’ve been at.

Didn’t your dad work for Columbia back in the day? He did. I had a boyfriend one time that bought me every David Allan Coe record that he ever made because my dad’s name was on them.

KENNY CHESNEY FILLS IN CALENDARAfter a year off from touring, Kenny Chesney had coyly revealed his opening acts and target cities for this year’s summer run, which includes two dozen stadiums. Now, there’s a mostly completed date book to work with. Chesney kicks off the Big Revival Tour on March 26, his 47th birthday, at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, and will complete it on Aug. 29 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough,

Mass. Two of the 52 venues are still up in the air, at least to the public. His Aug. 20 schedule is “TBA,” and the venue for March 27 is a “surprise.” With 24 days left until the Grammy Awards, Eric Church is the first country artist who has been announced as a performer on the Feb. 8 telecast. With a nomination in each of the four country categories, he joins Madonna, Ed

Sheeran, Ariana Grande and AC/DC in the Staples Center lineup that night. Meanwhile, Willie Nelson is part of the cast Feb. 10 when the Recording Acad-emy shoots Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life—An All-Star Grammy Salute at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live. The special airs Feb. 16 on CBS. Fans will determine the finalists for the Academy of Country Music’s new-artist of the year trophy for the seventh consecutive year, beginning Jan. 27. CMT is a partner in the balloting as eight semifinalists get whittled down to three nominees. The candidates are Brett Eldredge, Tyler Farr, Sam Hunt, Kip Moore, Thomas Rhett, Chase Rice, Cole Swindell and Dan + Shay. A museum honoring the late George Jones will open in downtown Nashville on April 24. Widow Nancy Jones has commandeered the project, which docu-ments the Possum’s career, military history and storied marriage to Tammy Wynette. Coinciding with the grand opening, Silver Trail Distillery will launch White Lightning Moonshine, named for the singer’s first No. 1 single.

MIDWEEK NEWS UPDATE

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LAST WEEK

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TITLE Artist PRODUCER (SONGWRITER) IMPRINT / PROMOTION LABEL CERTIFIED

PEAK POSITION

l1 1 1 16 SOMETHING IN THE WATER ★★No. 1 (6 weeks)★★ Carrie Underwood M.BRIGHT (C.UNDERWOOD,C. DESTEFANO,BRETT JAMES) 19/ARISTA NASHVILLE

1

2 2 2 17 SHOTGUN RIDER Tim McGraw B.GALLIMORE,T.MCGRAW (H.LINDSEY,M.GREEN,T.VERGES) MCGRAW/BIG MACHINE 1

l3 3 3 17 TALLADEGA Eric Church J.JOYCE (E.CHURCH,L.LAIRD) EMI NASHVILLE 3

l4 5 5 11 I SEE YOU ★★Airplay Gainer★★ Luke Bryan J.STEVENS (L.BRYAN,L.LAIRD,A.GORLEY) CAPITOL NASHVILLE

4

l5 4 4 17 SUN DAZE Florida Georgia Line J.MOI (C.R.BARLOWE,J.FRASURE,S.BUXTON,T.HUBBARD,B.KELLEY) REPUBLIC NASHVILLE 4

l6 6 8 21 PERFECT STORM Brad Paisley L.WOOTEN,B.PAISLEY (B.PAISLEY,L.T.MILLER) ARISTA NASHVILLE 4

l7 7 12 11 LONELY TONIGHT Blake Shelton Featuring Ashley Monroe S.HENDRICKS (B.ANDERSON,R.HURD) WARNER BROS./WMN 5

l8 11 17 15 TIL IT’S GONE Kenny Chesney B.CANNON,K.CHESNEY (R.CLAWSON,D.L.MURPHY,J.YEARY) BLUE CHAIR/COLUMBIA NASHVILLE 8

l9 12 14 20 MAKE ME WANNA Thomas Rhett J.JOYCE (THOMAS RHETT,B.BUTLER,L.MCCOY) VALORY 9

l10 8 6 20 DRINKING CLASS Lee Brice M.MCCLURE,K.JACOBS,L.BRICE (J.KEAR,D.FRASIER,E.M.HILL) CURB 6

l11 9 13 12 JUST GETTIN’ STARTED Jason Aldean M.KNOX (C. DESTEFANO,R.AKINS,A.GORLEY) BROKEN BOW 9

12 10 7 28 GOD MADE GIRLS RaeLynn J.MOI (RAELYNN,N.GALYON,L.MCKENNA,L.ROSE) VALORY 7

l13 14 15 17 LONELY EYES Chris Young J.STROUD (J.BULFORD,J.MATTHEWS,L.VELTZ) RCA NASHVILLE 13

l14 16 19 20 MEAN TO ME Brett Eldredge L.LAIRD (B.ELDREDGE,SCOOTER CARUSOE) ATLANTIC/WMN 14

l15 22 24 11 TAKE YOUR TIME ★★Digital 0& Streaming Gainer★★ Sam Hunt Z.CROWELL,S.MCANALLY (S.HUNT,J.OSBORNE,S.MCANALLY) MCA NASHVILLE

15

l16 20 22 31 LIKE A COWBOY Randy Houser D.GEORGE (R.HOUSER,B.LONG) STONEY CREEK 16

l17 19 21 20 HOMEGROWN HONEY Darius Rucker F.ROGERS (D.RUCKER,C.KELLEY,N.CHAPMAN) CAPITOL NASHVILLE 17

18 18 16 26 GIRL IN A COUNTRY SONG Maddie & Tae D.HUFF,A.SCHERZ (A.SCHERZ,M.MARLOW,T.DYE) DOT 0 3

l19 26 27 15 AIN’T WORTH THE WHISKEY Cole Swindell M.CARTER (C.SWINDELL,A.SANDERS,J.MARTIN) WARNER BROS./WMN 19

20 13 9 26 BURNIN’ IT DOWN Jason Aldean M.KNOX (C.G.TOMPKINS,R.CLAWSON,B.KELLEY,T.HUBBARD) BROKEN BOW 1 1

l21 25 28 22 TAKE IT ON BACK Chase Bryant D.GEORGE,C.BRYANT (C.BRYANT,T.L.JAMES,D.ALTMAN) RED BOW 21

l22 23 26 22 WHAT WE AIN’T GOT Jake Owen J.MOI (T.J.GOFF,T.MEADOWS) RCA NASHVILLE 22

l23 24 25 16 A GUY WALKS INTO A BAR Tyler Farr J.CATINO,J.KING (M.PEIRCE,J.SINGLETON,B.TURSI) COLUMBIA NASHVILLE 23

24 21 23 22 NEON LIGHT Blake Shelton S.HENDRICKS (A.DORFF,J.KEAR,MARK IRWIN) WARNER BROS./WMN 3

l25 28 30 13 SAY YOU DO Dierks Bentley R. COPPERMAN (M.T.RAMSEY,S.MCANALLY,T. ROSEN) CAPITOL NASHVILLE 25

Hot Country SongsAIRPLAY MONITORED BY

SALES DATA COMPILED BY

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE JANUARY 15, 2014 | PAGE 5 OF 7

THE COUNTRY MUSIC INDUSTRY’S MUST-HAVE SOURCE FOR NEWS, ANALYSIS AND CHART INFO EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY

Lee Ann Photoglo, 615-376-7931, laphotoglo@gmail.comTO ADVERTISE, CONTACT:

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key music infl uencers

Country UPDATE

THIS WEEK

LAST WEEK

TWO WEEKS

AGOWKS ON CHART

TITLE Artist PRODUCER (SONGWRITER) IMPRINT / PROMOTION LABEL CERTIFIED

PEAK POSITION

l26 27 29 36 KISS YOU TONIGHT David Nail F.LIDDELL,C.AINLAY,G.WORF (D.COOK,J.KNOWLES,T.SUMMAR) MCA NASHVILLE 25

l27 29 32 11 FREESTYLE Lady Antebellum N.CHAPMAN,LADY ANTEBELLUM (D.HAYWOOD,C.KELLEY,H.SCOTT,S.MCANALLY) CAPITOL NASHVILLE 27

l28 NEW 1 GOING OUT LIKE THAT ★★Hot Shot Debut★★ Reba T.BROWN (B.HAYSLIP,R.AKINS,J.SELLERS) NASH ICON/VALORY

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l29 30 33 12 TRAILER HITCH Kristian Bush K.BUSH,T.TAPLEY (K.BUSH,B.BUSH,T.OWENS) STREAMSOUND 29

l30 34 42 6 GIRL CRUSH Little Big Town J.JOYCE (L.ROSE,L.MCKENNA,H.LINDSEY) CAPITOL NASHVILLE 30

l31 31 35 10 SHE DON’T LOVE YOU Eric Paslay M.ALTMAN (E.PASLAY,J.WAYNE) EMI NASHVILLE 31

l32 32 34 15 LOVE YOU LIKE THAT Canaan Smith B.BEAVERS,J.ROBBINS (C.SMITH,B.BEAVERS,J.BEAVERS) MERCURY 32

l33 35 37 8 LAY LOW Josh Turner F.ROGERS (R.COPPERMAN,T.MARTIN,M.NESLER) MCA NASHVILLE 33

l34 33 36 13 DRUNK AMERICANS Toby Keith T.KEITH,B.PINSON (B.CLARK,B.DIPIERO,S.MCANALLY) SHOW DOG NASHVILLE 33

l35 38 44 8 DON’T IT Billy Currington D.HUFF (J.JOHNSTON,A.GORLEY,R.COPPERMAN) MERCURY 35

l36 37 41 10 BABY BE MY LOVE SONG Easton Corbin C.CHAMBERLAIN (J.COLLINS,BRETT JAMES) MERCURY 36

l37 39 45 7 LOVE ME LIKE YOU MEAN IT Kelsea Ballerini F.G.WHITEHEAD (K.BALLERINI,J.KERR,F.G.WHITEHEAD,L.CARPENTER) BLACK RIVER 37

l38 36 43 10 GENTLE ON MY MIND The Band Perry D.HUFF (J.HARTFORD) BIG MACHINE/REPUBLIC NASHVILLE 35

l39 40 39 11 MAKE YOU MISS ME Sam Hunt Z.CROWELL,S.MCANALLY (S.HUNT,J.OSBORNE,M.T.RAMSEY) MCA NASHVILLE 32

l40 41 48 5 HARD TO BE COOL Joe Nichols M.J.CONES (R.HATCH,J.SELLERS) RED BOW 40

l41 NEW 1 HOMEGROWN Zac Brown Band J.JOYCE,Z.BROWN (Z.BROWN,W.DURRETTE,N.MOON) VARVATOS/REPUBLIC/SOUTHERN GROUND 41

l42 42 40 17 HOUSE PARTY Sam Hunt Z.CROWELL,S.MCANALLY (S.HUNT,Z.CROWELL,J.FLOWERS) MCA NASHVILLE 39

l43 43 38 16 EX TO SEE Sam Hunt Z.CROWELL,S.MCANALLY (S.HUNT,J.OSBORNE,M.T.RAMSEY) MCA NASHVILLE 37

l44 44 50 4 WHEN I’VE BEEN DRINKIN’ Jon Pardi B.BUTLER,J.PARDI (J.PARDI,B.BUTLER,J.SPILLMAN) CAPITOL NASHVILLE 44

l45 45 — 2 TROUBLE Gloriana M.SERLETIC (R.REINERT,M.GOSSIN,R.COPPERMAN,J.M.NITE) EMBLEM/WARNER BROS./WAR 45

l46 NEW 1 RIOT Rascal Flatts J.DEMARCUS,RASCAL FLATTS (J.BOYER,S.HAZE) BIG MACHINE 46

l47 46 46 6 GONNA WANNA TONIGHT Chase Rice C. DESTEFANO (S.MCANALLY,J.M.NITE,J.ROBBINS) DACK JANIELS/COLUMBIA NASHVILLE 34

l48 NEW 1 SMOKE A Thousand Horses D.COBB (M.HOBBY,J.M.NITE,R.COPPERMAN) REPUBLIC NASHVILLE 48

l49 48 — 2 ONE HELL OF AN AMEN Brantley Gilbert D.HUFF (B.GILBERT,M.DEKLE,B.DAVIS) VALORY 48

l50 47 49 5 SPEAKERS Sam Hunt Z.CROWELL,S.MCANALLY (S.HUNT,B.HOOD,K.SACKLEY) MCA NASHVILLE 40

For week ending January 11 2015. Figures are rounded. Compiled from a national sample of retail store and rack sales reports collected and provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

For inquiries about any Nielsen SoundScan 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 BDS, sales data as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and streaming activity data from online music sources tracked by Nielsen BDS. 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 JANUARY 15, 2015 | PAGE 6 OF 7

ALBUMSDIGITAL

ALBUMS*DIGITAL TRACKS

This Week 432,000 157,000 2,297,000

Last Week 561,000 222,000 2,892,000

Change -23.0% -29.3% -20.6%

This Week Last Year 528,000 144,000 2,801,000

Change -18.2% 9.0% -18.0%

*Digital album sales are also counted within album sales.

Weekly Unit SalesYear-Over-Year Album Sales2014 2015 CHANGE

Albums 998,000 993,000 -0.5%

Digital Tracks 6,188,000 5,189,000 -16.1%

YEAR-TO-DATE

Overall Unit Sales

2014 2015 CHANGE

Physical 635,000 614,000 9.0%

Digital 363,000 379,000 4.4%

Sales by Album Format

AIRPLAY MONITORED BY

SALES DATA COMPILED BY

’15

’14

DIGITAL TRACKS SALES

’15

’14

998 thousand

993 thousand

000.0 million

’14

’13

5.2 million

6.2 million

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l1 13 11 TAKE YOUR TIME SAM HUNT (MCA Nashville/UMGN)

2 2 17 SHOTGUN RIDER TIM MCGRAW (McGraw/Big Machine/BMLG)

3 1 15 SOMETHING IN THE WATER CARRIE UNDERWOOD (19/Arista Nashville/SMN)

l4 6 12 LONELY TONIGHT BLAKE SHELTON FEAT. ASHLEY MONROE (Warner Bros./WMN)

5 4 16 SUN DAZE FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE (Republic Nashville/BMLG)

6 5 16 TALLADEGA ERIC CHURCH (EMI Nashville/UMGN)

7 8 12 LONELY EYES CHRIS YOUNG (RCA Nashville/SMN)

l8 12 10 I SEE YOU LUKE BRYAN (Capitol Nashville)

9 7 18 DRINKING CLASS LEE BRICE (Curb)

10 9 23 GOD MADE GIRLS RAELYNN (Valory/BMLG)

11 10 10 JUST GETTIN’ STARTED JASON ALDEAN (Broken Bow/BBMG)

12 3 24 BURNIN’ IT DOWN JASON ALDEAN (Broken Bow/BBMG)

l13 NEW GOING OUT LIKE THAT REBA (Nash Icon/Valory/BMLG)

l14 17 15 MAKE ME WANNA THOMAS RHETT (Valory/BMLG)

l15 16 8 A GUY WALKS INTO A BAR TYLER FARR (Columbia Nashville/SMN)

16 11 59 THIS IS HOW WE ROLL FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE FEAT. LUKE BRYAN (Republic Nashville/BMLG)

l17 18 30 LEAVE THE NIGHT ON SAM HUNT (MCA Nashville/UMGN)

18 14 59 PLAY IT AGAIN LUKE BRYAN (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

l19 27 14 AIN’T WORTH THE WHISKEY COLE SWINDELL (Warner Bros./WMN)

l20 24 19 MEAN TO ME BRETT ELDREDGE (Atlantic/WMN)

l21 23 20 WHAT WE AIN’T GOT JAKE OWEN (RCA Nashville/SMN)

l22 22 19 PERFECT STORM BRAD PAISLEY (Arista Nashville/SMN)

23 15 26 DIRT FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE (Republic Nashville/BMLG)

24 21 26 GIRL IN A COUNTRY SONG MADDIE & TAE (Dot/BMLG)

25 19 37 DRUNK ON A PLANE DIERKS BENTLEY (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

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26 20 30 AMERICAN KIDS KENNY CHESNEY (Blue Chair/Columbia Nashville/SMN)

27 25 34 BARTENDER LADY ANTEBELLUM (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

28 30 45 I DON’T DANCE LEE BRICE (Curb)

29 29 16 HOMEGROWN HONEY DARIUS RUCKER (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

l30 RE-ENTRY GIRL CRUSH LITTLE BIG TOWN (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

l31 39 18 LIKE A COWBOY RANDY HOUSER (Stoney Creek/BBMG)

32 26 21 NEON LIGHT BLAKE SHELTON (Warner Bros./WMN)

33 31 33 SUNSHINE & WHISKEY FRANKIE BALLARD (Warner Bros./WMN)

34 36 25 SOMEWHERE IN MY CAR KEITH URBAN (Hit Red/Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

35 28 131 CRUISE FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE (Republic Nashville/BMLG)

36 34 31 SOMETHIN’ BAD MIRANDA LAMBERT DUET WITH CARRIE UNDERWOOD (RCA Nashville/SMN)

l37 RE-ENTRY SAY YOU DO DIERKS BENTLEY (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

38 32 70 BOYS ‘ROUND HERE BLAKE SHELTON FEAT. PISTOL ANNIES & FRIENDS (Warner Bros./WMN)

39 37 166 CHICKEN FRIED ZAC BROWN BAND (Home Grown/Atlantic/Bigger Picture)

l40 50 20 BREAK UP IN A SMALL TOWN SAM HUNT (MCA Nashville/UMGN)

l41 42 27 MY EYES BLAKE SHELTON FEAT. GWEN SEBASTIAN (Warner Bros./WMN)

l42 44 11 LOVE YOU LIKE THAT CANAAN SMITH (Mercury/UMGN)

l43 RE-ENTRY CLOSE YOUR EYES PARMALEE (Stoney Creek/BBMG)

44 35 28 ROLLER COASTER LUKE BRYAN (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

l45 RE-ENTRY SHE DON’T LOVE YOU ERIC PASLAY (EMI Nashville/UMGN)

46 38 32 DAY DRINKING LITTLE BIG TOWN (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

47 33 48 BOTTOMS UP BRANTLEY GILBERT (Valory/BMLG)

48 41 45 DRINK A BEER LUKE BRYAN (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

l49 RE-ENTRY READY SET ROLL CHASE RICE (Dack Janiels)

50 40 63 THAT’S MY KIND OF NIGHT LUKE BRYAN (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

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

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l1 5 1 9 GARTH BROOKS Man Against MachinePEARL/RCA NASHVILLE 501135/SMN 1

2 1 2 14 JASON ALDEAN Old Boots, New DirtBROKEN BOW 7105/BBMG 0 1

l3 4 7 11 SAM HUNT MontevalloMCA NASHVILLE 021502/UMGN 1

4 3 3 5 CARRIE UNDERWOOD Greatest Hits: Decade #119/ARISTA NASHVILLE 500876/SMN 1

5 6 4 13 FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE Anything GoesREPUBLIC NASHVILLE /BMLG 1

6 2 5 75 LUKE BRYAN Crash My PartyCAPITOL NASHVILLE 018733/UMGN 2 1

7 8 9 15 BLAKE SHELTON BRINGING BACK THE SUNSHINEWARNER BROS. 544918/WMN 1

8 9 6 17 GEORGE STRAIT The Cowboy Rides Away: Live From AT&T StadiumMCA NASHVILLE 021477/UMGN 2

9 7 15 48 ERIC CHURCH The OutsidersEMI NASHVILLE 019402*/UMGN 0 1

10 10 13 34 BRANTLEY GILBERT Just As I AmVALORY BG0200A/BMLG 0 1

11 11 11 32 MIRANDA LAMBERT PlatinumRCA NASHVILLE 379278/SMN 0 1

l12 16 14 15 LADY ANTEBELLUM 747CAPITOL NASHVILLE /UMGN 2

13 14 16 9 ZAC BROWN BAND Greatest Hits So Far...ROAR/SOUTHERN GROUND/ATLANTIC 546369/AG 5

14 15 22 35 STURGILL SIMPSON Metamodern Sounds In Country MusicHIGH TOP MOUNTAIN 002*/THIRTY TIGERS 11

15 13 12 17 TIM MCGRAW Sundown Heaven TownMCGRAW/BIG MACHINE TM0200A/BMLG 1

l16 19 18 21 CHASE RICE Ignite The NightCOLUMBIA NASHVILLE 22573/DACK JANIELS 1

17 12 10 16 KENNY CHESNEY The Big RevivalBLUE CHAIR/COLUMBIA NASHVILLE 306274/SMN 1

18 17 17 12 LITTLE BIG TOWN Pain KillerCAPITOL NASHVILLE 021360*/UMGN 3

19 18 21 47 COLE SWINDELL Cole SwindellWARNER BROS. 541372/WMN 2

20 20 19 18 LEE BRICE I Dont DanceCURB 79392* 1

l21 22 27 61 BRETT ELDREDGE Bring You BackATLANTIC 525855/WMN 2

22 21 26 18 DUSTIN LYNCH Where It’s AtBROKEN BOW 7337/BBMG 2

23 23 25 46 DIERKS BENTLEY RiserCAPITOL NASHVILLE 019404/UMGN 1

l24 27 34 18 ALABAMA Angels Among Us: Hymns & Gospel FavoritesCRACKER BARREL/TAG/GAITHER 483414 EX/CAPITOL CMG 6

25 24 20 32 VARIOUS ARTISTS NOW That’s What I Call Country: Volume 7UNIVERSAL/SONY MUSIC 020859/UME 3

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l1 3 29 LEAVE THE NIGHT ON SAM HUNT

2 2 46 THIS IS HOW WE ROLL FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE FEAT. LUKE BRYAN

l3 7 15 SOMETHING IN THE WATER CARRIE UNDERWOOD

l4 4 27 DIRT FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE

5 1 62 WE ARE NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER TAYLOR SWIFT

6 6 93 CRUISE FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE

7 5 55 BOTTOMS UP BRANTLEY GILBERT

l8 9 42 PLAY IT AGAIN LUKE BRYAN

l9 12 5 I SEE YOU LUKE BRYAN

10 8 12 SUN DAZE FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE

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l11 13 6 TALLADEGA ERIC CHURCH

l12 11 10 GOD MADE GIRLS RAELYNN

l13 18 10 SHOTGUN RIDER TIM MCGRAW

l14 16 9 DRINKING CLASS LEE BRICE

l15 14 25 ROLLER COASTER LUKE BRYAN

l16 20 16 SOMEWHERE IN MY CAR KEITH URBAN

l17 24 2 TAKE YOUR TIME SAM HUNT

l18 17 74 THAT’S MY KIND OF NIGHT LUKE BRYAN

l19 19 25 GIRL IN A COUNTRY SONG MADDIE & TAE

20 10 53 YOU BELONG WITH ME TAYLOR SWIFT

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 SoundScan, Inc. All rights reserved.

BUILDING AIRPLAY GAINERSTITLE Label Artist GAIN

HOMEGROWN Varvatos/Republic/Southern Ground Zac Brown Band +910

SMOKE Republic Nashville A Thousand Horses +460

I SEE YOU Capitol Nashville Luke Bryan +422

JUST GETTIN’ STARTED Broken Bow Jason Aldean +294

TALLADEGA EMI Nashville Eric Church +242

LIKE A COWBOY Stoney Creek Randy Houser +240

MAKE ME WANNA Valory Thomas Rhett +240

LONELY TONIGHT Warner Bros./WMN Blake Shelton Feat. Ashley Monroe +226

AIN’T WORTH THE WHISKEY Warner Bros./WMN Cole Swindell +217

TAKE IT ON BACK Red Bow Chase Bryant +215

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 BDS.

TOP COUNTRY ALBUMSCOUNTRY DIGITAL SONGS

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE JANUARY 15, 2015 | PAGE 7 OF 7

SALES DATA COMPILED BY

SALES DATA COMPILED BY

STREAMING DATA COMPILED BY

The week’s most popular country albums, ranked by sales data as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. 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 SoundScan, Inc. All rights reserved.

COUNTRY STREAMING SONGS