As expected, Kenny Chesney has ended Taylor Swift's eight-week reign on Billboard's country album chart. His Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates tumbles her self-titled CD to No. 3 this week. As previously reported (again and again and again... and now), Chesney's album sold 387,000 copies in its first week of release to debut in third place on the all-genre Billboard 200 -- just behind new CDs from Kanye West and 50 Cent.
After slipping from No. 1 to No. 8 last week, Garth Brooks' "More Than a Memory" gains enough traction to scramble back up to No. 7. Chesney, who's obviously all over the chartscape, sees his "Don't Blink" escalating from No. 10 to No. 6.
Bowing for the first time on the songs chart are Sugarland's "Stay" (No. 41), Craig Morgan's "International Harvester" (No. 48), Chesney and Joe Walsh's "Wild Ride" (No. 56) and Dolly Parton's "Better Get to Livin'" (No. 57). "Wild Ride," written by Dwight Yoakam, is a track from Chesney's new album.
It won't be long now until Christmas titles start popping up. I can hardly wait, can you?