Chart Update

It's time for your weekly Billboard country singles chart update!

- Darius Rucker glides into the No. 1 spot after 23 weeks on the chart! What an accomplishment with his very first country single...we think Darius is here to stay and that he's going to do well in the country format!

- Knocking hard at the door to that No. 1 spot is Kenny Chesney who takes over the No. 2 spot this week with his current hit, "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven." The song has only been on the charts for 8 weeks and is the lead single from Kenny's forthcoming album, "Lucky Old Sun."

- Toby Keith breaks into the top 5 at No. 5 this week with his hit, "She Never Cried In Front Of Me." This song is still climbing after 13 weeks on the charts.

- Three rising country stars hold steady this week at the same spot they were last week. Luke Bryan stays at No. 12 with "Country Man," Chuck Wicks stays at No. 14 with "All I Ever Wanted," and Jason Aldean holds place at No. 15 with "Relentless."

- Taylor Swift makes a big jump this week from No. 25 to No. 18 with "Love Story," the first single off her upcoming album, "Fearless." This is only the song's second week on the charts and it's moving fast!

- Our favorite new band, the Zac Brown Band, are still climbing with their single, "Chicken Fried." They land at No. 22 this week.

- Sugarland rounds out the top 25 landing at No. 25 with their new single "Already Gone." Their last release, "All I Want To Do" is still on the charts at No. 24 after climbing all the way to No. 1 for the duo!

Capitol Pub Crawl

The Capitol Pub Crawl was held last night in Nashville! Trace Adkins, Darius Rucker, Emily West, and Luke Bryan entertained over 9,000 fans for FREE! They are pictured above with Capitol CEO Mike Dungan.

Did you go? We wish we could have been there!!!

Darius Rucker's Star-Studded CD

By now you've heard that Hootie and the Blowfish front man, Darius Rucker, released his first country album this week...but have you heard that there's some serious star power on the album? Darius enlisted the help of country giants Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, and Brad Paisley for his first country project! Darius told The Memphis Commercial Appeal "Having Alison Krauss, Vince Gill and Brad Paisley on your record adds credibility for sure. All the performers were so great, and so great at what they do. These people are at the top of their genre, and for them to take their time and come down to sing and play was awesome...Everybody delivers when they show up. Listening to Brad Paisley play guitar on my song was a day I'll never forget."

Darius is staying busy during the release week of his CD...he will once again take the stage of the Grand Ole Opry this weekend as he performs there on Saturday night. You can catch the performance live on GAC...check your local listings for that.

Darius seems so genuine, humble and excited about his future in country music...we think he's one crossover that's here to stay!

Free Music Tonight In Nashville!

If you're in the Nashville area, head on down to the Capitol Pub Crawl tonight! You'll get entertained with free music by Trace Adkins, Luke Bryan, Darius Rucker, and Emily West! The event will kick-off at 6pm on Demonbreun Street near the Tin Roof and Dan McGuinness...get there a little early to play the new Sing Star Country game on PlayStation2! If you're the best one at the game, you'll win Meet & Greet passes for Trace Adkins as well as a brand new PS2 along with the Sing Star Country game!! If you can make it, HAVE FUN - we SO wish we could be there for this event...it's going to be a great night!!

Jessica Simpson Debuts At #1

Well the numbers have been tallied and Jessica Simpson's debut country album, "Do You Know," debuts at No. 1 this week on the country album charts. The CD sold 65,000 copies in it's first week and we're not really sure how that measures up. Obviously it's good enough for No. 1 for this week, but that could just be because it was the only big country album that debuted this week...OR, that could be great for a first time country CD. We're interested to see how another pop crossover, Darius Rucker, does next week when the sales are figured for his release of "Learn To Live."

What do you guys think? Is 65,000 a good number for Jessica for her 1st week sales? Either way, we bet Jessica is finally glad to get the music out there to her fans...this album has been highly anticipated, so we're sure it's a relief for her to just have it out there and be done with all of the hype!

Darius Rucker Album Debut

Darius Rucker's highly anticipated county crossover album hits stores today. The former Hootie and the Blowfish member's first country single,"Don't Think I Don't Think About It," is at #3 on the Billboard Charts! We're excited for his album "Learn To Live" and we promise to report back with a full review ASAP.

In the meantime you can check out Darius Rucker's cd at the AOL Listening party.
Thoughts?

Billboard Chart Update!

Much of the same songs compose the top 10 this week, but there has been some strong movement in the top 25. Here are some exciting highlights of this week's Billboard Country Chart...

- As we already told you, Brad Paisley has captured his 8th No. 1 in a row with "Waitin' On A Woman."

- After 21 weeks on the chart, Darius Rucker is still climbing steady, going from No. 5 to No. 3 this week with "Don't Think I Don't Think About It."

- Kenny Chesney breaks into the top 5 with "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven" which moves from No. 6 to No. 5 in only it's 6th week on the chart.

- Luke Bryan is still climbing with "Country Man" after 27 weeks on the chart...he moves from No. 16 to No. 14 this week.

- Tim McGraw made a big jump this week from No. 20 to No. 15 with his current release "Let It Go."

- "Roll With Me" makes a huge leap this week for Montgomery Gentry...it lands at No. 19 from No. 26 last week.

- Bucky Covington finds himself in the top 20 this week where "I'll Walk" moved up from No. 21 to No. 20.

- Country newcomer Crystal Shawanda moved up to the No. 21 spot from No. 25 this week.

Brad Paisley Concert Update

A couple of weeks ago we told you that Brad Paisley has added a 2nd leg to his current "Paisley Party Tour"...well now we know more details! Brad sent out an e-mail to his fan club members releasing the dates and supporting acts for those shows. The current schedule has dates starting in mid-January and running through March 1st, with Dierks Bentley joining Brad on all of those dates. Country newcomers Darius Rucker and Crystal Shawanda will split the opening act duties, with Darius tackling the January dates and Crystal taking over in February. Here's a list of the dates and locations...

• 1/15 - Tupelo, MS ~ BancorpSouth Center


• 1/16 - Little Rock, AR ~ Alltel Arena


• 1/17 - New Orleans, LA ~ New Orleans Arena


• 1/18 - Pensacola, FL ~ Pensacola Civic Center


• 1/22 - Austin, TX ~ Frank Irwin Center


• 1/23 - Bossier City, LA ~ CenturyTel Center


• 1/24 - Tulsa, OK ~ BOK Center


• 1/25 - Lubbock, TX ~ United Spirit Arena


• 1/29 - Dayton, OH ~ Nutter Center


• 1/30 - Moline, IL ~ iWireless Center


• 1/31 - Omaha, NE ~ Qwest Center


• 2/12 - London, ONT ~ John Labatt Centre


• 2/13 - Hamilton, ONT ~ Copps Coliseum


• 2/14 - Ottawa, ONT ~ Scotiabank Place


• 2/17 - Winnipeg, MAN ~ MTS Centre


• 2/18 - Regina, SK ~ Brandt Centre


• 2/19 - Saskatoon, SK ~ Credit Union Centre


• 2/20 - Edmonton, ALB ~ Rexall Place


• 2/21 - Calgary, ONT ~ Penngrowth Saddledome


• 2/24 - Vancouver, BC ~ General Motors Place


• 2/26 - Spokane, WA ~ Spokane Arena


• 2/27 - Portland, OR ~ Rose Garden


• 2/28 - Tacoma, WA ~ Tacoma Dome


• 3/01 - Yakima, WA ~ Yakima Valley Sundome

Chart Update

This week's Billboard chart has some surprising (and exciting) moves!

-As we told you yesterday, Jimmy Wayne captures his 1st No. 1 spot with "Do You Believe Me Now?"...if you haven't seen the video for this song yet, check it out on CMT and GAC...it does a great job of telling the story of the song!

-Darius Rucker gets his first Top 5 single with "Don't Think I Don't Think About It"...that song moved from No. 7 to No. 5 this week.

-Kid Rock is still climbing with "All Summer Long"...it lands at No. 7 from No. 10 last week. Did you guys know that this song was co-written by Uncle Kracker?! (you know...from his When The Sun Goes Down duet w/ Kenny Chesney)

-The Lost Trailers have their 1st top 10 single with "Holler Back"...they inch up from No. 11 to No. 10.

Chart Update

There was all kinds of exciting movement on the Billboard charts this week!

-Keith Urban inched his way from No. 2 into the No. 1 spot with "You Look Good In My Shirt"...we guess Keith's team made a smart move releasing this song even though it's not even on his current CD!

-Keith Anderson is knocking on Keith's door as he moved up one spot to No. 2 with the hugely popular "I Still Miss You." Does it have enough to reach the top spot?

-Kenny Chesney once again has the biggest gaining song of the week...in only it's 3rd week on the charts, "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven" leaped from No. 13 to No. 6! With all of the momentum this song has had, it certainly seems destined for No. 1, but we'll have to wait and see on that.

-Country newcomer Darius Rucker is still climbing with strength...his single "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" jumped from No. 10 to No. 7. We're sure he's very excited about the success of his first country song!

-Finally, Kid Rock rounds out the top 10, moving up to No. 10 from No. 14 with his summer anthem "All Summer Long."

Interesting fact...Taylor Swift is the ONLY female in the top 10 this week...she slips from No. 1 to No. 5 with her single "Should've Said No."

Chart Update

This week's Hot Country Songs chart is pretty similar to last week's but we want to update you on a few changes!

~Taylor Swift is hanging on to the top spot with "Should've Said No" for the 2nd week in a row.

~Sugarland's "All I Want To Do" fell 4 spots this week to #7.

~Darius Rucker's first country music single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" is at #10 (We're happy for him! You can tell he is really thankful for his success!).

~The highest chart gainer is Kenny Chesney's "Everybody Wants to go to Heaven" which is currently at #13 after being on the chart for just 3 weeks.

~Jamey Johnson's "In Color" just made it into the top 25 this week.

Darius Rucker's New Video

CMT.com just released Darius Rucker's new video for his first country music single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It."

We heard on the radio that Darius originally wanted Hootie & The Blowfish to be a country music band, but he said everyone else voted against it. Darius recently performed on the Grand Ole Opry for the first time. He seemed so excited about being there, but who wouldn't?! He is now living his dream!

His single is currently #14 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart- and it's only been on the charts for 16 weeks!!

Click HERE to watch the video & tell us what you think!

Our Questions For Darius Rucker

So, have y'all heard the new song by Darius Rucker? He's the former lead Singer for "Hootie & The Blowfish" and he's just released his initial attempt at success in Country Music. We were a little skeptical when we heard that he was another one trying the crossover thing, but we LOVE his new song. It's a great song and his voice sounds fantastic...but then we got to thinking and we have some questions for Darius. Let us preface the questions with some of the lyrics in case you haven't heard the song yet...

"Don't think I don't think about it
Don't think I don't have regrets
Don't think it don't get to me
Between the work and the hurt and the Whiskey
Don't think I don't worry 'bout
Coulda been shoulda been all worked out
I know what I felt, I know what I said
But don't think I don't think about it"

Ok, so the song speaks of a man who has presumably walked away from a relationship...we've all been there, right?? So it was nice to hear this song and think that maybe, just maybe, men actually DO have regrets and they DO actually think about things they've left behind. FINALLY, a little revenge for the women! BUT, we want to know...is it just a song or is it the truth?? So tell us Darius, if you're out there...do you really think about it? Do you really have regrets? Do you really worry about it? Women of the world need to know these things...and be careful, your whole career as a Country artist could rest on your answer to these questions!