August 21, 2017, Issue 564 WEEKLY YTD Charts: Down The Stretch As we make the turn for home in this year’s chart races, here’s how Country radio airplay stacks up as measured by the top songs, top artists and top labels at the three-quarter pole of the chart year. Tim McGraw leads the Top 10 artists, garnering the most airplay points for the first three-quarters of the 2017 chart year. He leads Blake Shelton by a nose. Trailing Blake, the rest of the field has Florida Georgia Line, Jason Aldean, Brett Young, Keith Urban, Luke Bryan, Thomas Rhett, Jon Pardi and Dustin Lynch. While the Top 10 is led by an artist who had his first hit some 23 years ago, four of those 10 – Lynch, Pardi, Rhett, and Young – Scored Rangers: Big Label’s Aaron Watson pulls in a Texas- have been on the national scene five or fewer sized crowd for a performance at Globe Life Park in Arlington, TX Saturday (8/19). Pictured (l-r) are KSCS’ Trapper John years. The second-place non-solo male act Morris, Cumulus/Dallas’ Rebecca Kaplan, Country Aircheck’s Tim McGraw is Old Dominion, at No. 12. Women aren’t Paul Williams, KSCS & KPLX’s Mac Daniels, Watson, KSCS’ faring too well thus far, with Lauren Alaina Mark “Hawkeye” Louis, the label’s Gwen Foster and CDA coming in at 20 and Kelsea Ballerini at 22. Entertainment’s Gino Genaro. The Hits: Jon Pardi’s “Dirt On My Boots” has posted more airplay points than any other Radio Names OD’s “Happy Endings” song at this point in the chart year and has a “Forty radio programmers, a handful of Sony staffers and Old narrow lead on Blake Shelton’s “A Guy With Dominion convene on the back of a boat …” is not the begin- A Girl.” Rounding out the Top 10 are Sam ning of a bad joke. It is, however, how the band came to call their Hunt’s “Body Like A Back Road,” Florida second album for RCA (out this Friday, Aug. 25) Happy Endings. Georgia Line and Tim McGraw’s “May We All,” It all began with OD’s Matt Ramsey, Trevor Rosen, Jon Pardi Michael Ray’s “Think A Little Less,” Brett Brad Tursi, Geoff Eldredge’s “Wanna Be That Song,” Little Big Sprung and Whit Town’s “Better Man,” Luke Combs’ “Hurricane,” Lauren Alaina’s Sellers chatting “Road Less Traveled,” and Dustin Lynch’s “Seein’ Red.” Here again, about their forth- the preponderance of the Top 10 come from artists who have been coming new music on the national scene a relatively few number of years. with me on the aft of Chart Share: As for the label chart share race, the leader by a Catamaran in the more than six lengths is the eight-time Country Aircheck Label of waters off Key West. the Year Capitol, boasting a whopping 16.9 share. The top 10 are: It was established 1. Capitol 16.9 early on that they had 2. WMN 10.2 5. Broken Bow 6.1 8. Columbia 5.1 yet to come up with a 3. BMLGR 7.5 6. RCA 5.9 9. Arista 4.9 name for the album. Key Men: Old Dominion with Helton (c). 4. Valory 6.8 7. Big Machine 5.5 9. MCA 4.9 Halfway through the ©2017 Country Aircheck™ — All rights reserved. Sign up free at www.countryaircheck.com. Send news to [email protected] COUNTRY COUNTRYRCHECK August 21, 2017 • Page 3 RCHECK six-song set, we came to one called, “So You Go.” I set it up by asking everyone to pay attention to how it ends. At its close, the protagonist decides whether to go to his girl or not, but the pivotal line “so you go” is not sung as the song closes. I said to the band, “He goes, right?” Matt shoots me a quizzical look and says, “May- be he doesn’t.” Matt and Brad joke back and forth about whether or not he stays home or goes to her, when Matt asks me why I think the guy goes to her. “I like happy endings,” I said. Through the rest of the afternoon “Happy Endings” became a COUNTRY running joke as we talked about other songs on the album. The RCHECK guys would even crack, “Here’s another song from our new album ‘Happy Endings’ to cheers and lots of laughs. “At one point I think we even took a vote,” said Matt when the band was in to co-host Country Countdown USA with me. “And it was unanimous for Happy Endings. Country radio named the album, so don’t blame us.” Rae Of Nope: Valory’s Delta Rae and friends get their sun gaze on at FGL House in Nashville. Pictured (l-r) are There were, of course, a few other steps that had to be taken SiriusXM’s JR Schumann and Storme Warren, DR’s Elizabeth prior to that becoming the official title – one of which was the guys Hopkins, the label’s George Briner, and DR’s Brittany Holljes in the band all agreeing. “We got off the boat and we kind of and Eric Holljes. went, ‘I think we just named the album,’” recalled Matt. “Every- body was like, ‘Yeah, I’m good if you are.’” with it. He said, ‘I don’t care what you call it as long as it has hit One of the reasons the guys were so quick to settle on the title, songs on it.’ We never talked about it again. That was just it.” left field as it might be, was that the pressure was on from the la- In early May, Old Dominion had the title to an album set for a bel for a title and a cover. “We had been talking about an album late August release. Jump ahead to late July, I got the press release title for more than a month,” said Matt. “We were all just so tired announcing the new OD album and almost fell out of my chair of talking about what the album was going to be called.” laughing. I actually sent an email to Randy and Sony Music Nash- Under the gun, Happy Endings was looking better and better. “ ville’s Steve Hodges, asking if the presser was a one-off sent to me [Sony Chairman Randy Goodman] was on the boat and I remem- as a joke. Assured it was real, I couldn’t believe they actually did it. ber laughing about it in that moment,” said Trevor. “We were like, During our CCUSA visit, I said to the band there was no way ‘Hey, Randy -- Happy Endings?’” that anyone who wasn’t on that boat could possibly understand Picking up the story, Matt said, “The next morning, Geoff and how “Happy Endings” makes any sense as the album’s title. “It’s I went for coffee and Randy was there. He looks at us and goes, impossible to connect any of the songs on this album to the title,” I ‘So, Happy Endings?’ We said it seemed that way if he was cool said on air. ©2017 Country Aircheck™ — All rights reserved. Sign up free at www.countryaircheck.com. Send news to [email protected] COUNTRY COUNTRYRCHECK August 21, 2017 • Page 5 RCHECK Ramsey didn’t quite agree. “When you really listen to the MY TUNES: MUSIC THAT SHAPED MY LIFE album, Happy Endings really does apply to most of the songs. MV2 Entertainment's Terry McBride Although, some of them like ‘So You Go’ and ‘Written In Sand,’ discusses his most influential music: there might be a be a question mark if they’re going to end well.” 1. Willie Nelson: I was fortunate to grow up “Maybe we should have put a question mark at the end of the in a small town about 60 miles from Austin. title and called it ‘Happy Endings?’” laughingly added Tursi. “I think In the '70s, Willie Nelson had moved to Austin we’ll add the question mark whenever we sign the album cover.” and the whole progressive, country outlaw Question mark in the title notwithstanding, the question did movement was taking shape. His albums remain whether the organic christening of the album was divine Phases and Stages and Shotgun Willie were so inspiration or devious manipulation. After all, has there in history Terry McBride different than anything out at the time. ever been a better job of sucking up to Country radio than to offer 2. Willie Nelson's Third Annual Fourth them an album they helped name? “That’s definitely something Of July Picnic: It was 1975. It was an eye-opening moment we talked about,” laughed Matt, as the other four guys nodded – the huge crowd, the music, and the drugs. It was shocking their heads in agreement. –Lon Helton and wonderful all at the same time. It was a big ol' dose of everything I had never been exposed to before. Running Out Of Moonlight 3. George Strait's "Unwound": His voice stopped me in my While airplay increased today for songs like “Praying For tracks and made a profound impact on me. Having a couple of my Daylight,” “When The Sun Goes Down,” “We Owned The Night,” songs recorded by George is still one of the highlights of my career. “Ain’t Goin Down ‘Til The Sun Comes Up” and “Fishin’ In The 4. Delbert McClinton: Growing up in Texas, he was Dark,” Country radio also hit the streets – and in at least one legendary.