BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS EDITED BY TOM ROLAND, tom.roland@billboard.com APRIL 30, 2015 | PAGE 1 OF 7

INSIDEMakin’ Tracks:

Brett Eldredge’s ‘Lose My Mind’

>page 2

Stark Report: One Man’s

Trash… >page 3

Questions Answered:

AristoMedia President

Jeff Walker >page 4

Hank Jr. Writes Next

Chapter >page 4

Kenny Chesney Picks Up

New Client >page 4

Little Big Town notches its second No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, as “Girl Crush” (Capitol Nashville) rises 2-1. The band previously reigned with “Pontoon,” which sailed upstream to No. 1 for two weeks in September 2012. (The band has charted 23 titles, dating to its first in 2002.)

“Crush” gains by 15 percent in overall activity, led by its third week atop Country Digital Songs (110,000 downloads sold, up 13 percent, in the week ending April 26, according to Nielsen Music). The track’s lyrical theme has helped build its buzz, as sev-eral media outlets have mistak-enly pegged the track as sung by a woman romantically inter-ested in another female (an al-most unheard-of angle in main-stream country music). Instead, the song presents the viewpoint of a woman jealous of another woman’s desirability (Billboard Country Update, April 2).

Also on Hot Country Songs, Christina Aguilera makes her first appearance, as “Shotgun” (ABC Studios/Lions Gate/Big Machine) debuts (with a bullet, pun intended) at No. 28. The song accompanied the April 22 episode of Nashville, a week after Agu-ilera’s more pop-focused song “The Real Thing” was featured on the show. In between, Aguilera sang “Shotgun” at the Academy

of Country Music Awards, which aired on CBS (April 19). Her new ballad bows at No. 7 on Country Digital Songs with 30,000 sold. (Notably, the song was available commercially only for a week, per an agreement among all involved, unlike other Nashville sin-

gles.) Aguilera unveiled her char-acter Jade St. John on the April 15 Nashville episode, guesting as the ex-fiancee of Jeff Fordham, played by Oliver Hudson.)

On Top Countr y A lbums, Reba McEntire’s Love Some-body (Nash Icon/Valory/Big Machine Label Group) reigns for a second week (24,000 sold, down 60 percent). Meanwhile, two albums from Texas red dirt acts arrive. Randy Rogers & Wade Bowen’s Hold My Beer, Vol. 1 (Lil’ Buddy Toons/Good

Time) debuts at No. 4 (13,000). It is Rogers’ fourth top five entry and Bowen’s first (following two No. 9- peaking titles) and his best sales week. At No. 18, William Clark Green’s second charted title (and fourth album), Ringling Road (Bill Grease), debuts with 5,000, also a career high. He reached No. 34 with Rose Queen in 2013. This column was written by Billboard associate director of charts/radio Gary Trust (gary.trust@billboard.com).

LITTLE BIG TOWN

Country MID- WEEK

UPDATE

‘Girl’ Power: Little Big Town Leads; Christina Aguilera Debuts

Love is the most favored topic of songwriters, who frequently use insanity as a means of explaining humans’ need for coupling. Patsy Cline rather typi-cally described herself as “crazy for feeling so lonely” in her signature, Willie Nelson-penned song. But the most extreme images of mental illness — the kinds of visuals that formed the backbone of the Jack Nicholson movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest — are so disturbing and uncomfortable that they’re almost never included in the average three-minute love song.

Brett Eldredge’s new single, “Lose My Mind,” is clearly an exception. “It’s funny to think that we pulled off a country song with a straitjacket and

padded room and that people are saying that it’s going to be this fun summer song,” says co-writer Heather Morgan (“Beat of the Music”) with a laugh. “It’s not really the mix that you would think of for that kind of thing, but it works.”

What makes it work is the crazy little backbeat in “Lose My Mind,” which is likely the product of Eldredge’s bouts with sleep deprivation.

“Brett’s an insomniac,” says co-writer/ co-producer Ross Copperman (“Smoke,” “Tip It On Back”).

Eldredge’s inability to sleep the night before a writing session in spring 2014 proved beneficial. He locked onto a groove, and it stayed with him into the next day. He showed up at Copperman’s Music Row office a veritable live wire, moving around the room, beating out the rhythms on his thigh, clap-ping, drumming on a table top, using every way possible to communicate the chords and the pat-terns he heard in his head.

“I didn’t even have to have a guitar or anything,” says Eldredge. “On the level I have with Ross and Heather, I can start singing this groove, and he can start just literally picking it up right then. He’s a freak of a talent, and then Heather’s immedi-ately singing along with us. It’s kind of a conversation that is unlike anything else.”

Copperman found a punchy set of acoustic guitar rhythms and captured it on his laptop, and that frenetic energy practically dictated the manic, obsessive storyline, which emerged at the same time as the melody.

“The groove and the music almost speak to what the song’s supposed to be about,” says Eldredge. “It’s got that tension, and then all of a sudden we just kind of started writing to this place where [everyone’s been], when that other person that you’re in love with literally is everything to you, and you can’t escape that thought process. You wake up with them on your mind, and you go to sleep with them on your mind, and literally you’re going crazy because you’re crazy about that person.”

They established a key early on and flooded the piece with as many references to psychoses as possible, but never let it feel as analytical as a Freudian couch.

“We were just pulling out all the imagery that comes with that topic,” says Morgan. “You kind of hit a Pandora’s box where once you’ve got that in your head and you’re in that mind-set, it’s really cool to go through that door and be like, ‘Wow, we have a lot of options here.’ ”

After they had the chorus and two verses, they added one more piece: a break-down with amped-up rhythms and an almost-shouted vocal. “We wanted to do a gospel-like, get-crazy throwdown,” says Copperman. “It’s a great piece for his show, that little bridge section. It just brings the energy to a whole other level.”

They concluded it with Eldredge hitting the highest note in the song at the very end of a two-minute, 35-second romp — short enough that it creates an ap-propriately obsessive loop for the listener.

“By the end of the song, we want you to be like, ‘Oh, my God, what happened? What did I just listen to?’ ” says Eldredge. “I want you to have to go back and listen again.”

Copperman finished the demo before the night was over, and much of what was laid down that day — including the acoustic bed, Eldredge’s vocals and Morgan’s harmony part — made it into the final version. So did the first line of the second

verse: “You make me crazy,” five notes that are identical to the hook of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.” They debated changing that line, but Eldredge felt it was too good to drop. So they offered a percent-age of the song to Gnarls Barkley members CeeLo Green and Danger Mouse, plus two film com-posers who inspired the Gnarls recording. Thus, “Lose My Mind” lists a total of seven songwrit-ers. It also avoids the risk of a lawsuit akin to the “Blurred Lines” battle Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke faced with Marvin Gaye’s estate.

“I think it’s pretty cool to be a co-writer with CeeLo,” says Copperman. “I was saying we bet-ter at least get a CeeLo co-write out of the deal.”

Copperman put a descending guitar hook at the front of “Lose My Mind” and had Derek Wells add an ascending answer during the recording session at John and Martina McBride’s Blackbird Studio. Drummer Fred Eltringham and bass player Tony Lucido funked it up a touch. And steel player Dan

Dugmore and synth programmer Jason Lehning found subtle ways to under-score the crazy theme. The whole ensemble added snaps and claps at the end, and when Warner Music Nashville president/CEO John Esposito came by for a listen, he practically begged them to put it on repeat.

“I swear to God, we played that song probably 10 times in a row that night in the studio,” says Eldredge. “That was really important to me, and we knew right away with this song that we had something special.”

Eldredge concocted a video treatment that required him to wear a straitjacket for the better part of a day. He also got to work with a Victoria’s Secret model, but that didn’t entirely offset the discomfort. “I’m very claustrophobic,” he con-fesses. “I don’t like small spaces and being where you can’t get out. Now I know what it’s like to be in a straitjacket — it might even be more intense than love.”

The video had its public debut on the giant video screen at AT&T Stadium during the Academy of Country Music Awards on April 19. Two days later, the single shipped to radio via Play MPE, and it debuted at No. 34 on the current Country Airplay chart.

Programmers were obviously excited about it. So is Morgan, who heard the finished version for the first time along with 70,000 other people in the audi-ence at the ACMs. She continues to be rewarded by all the embellishments and detail in the production.

“I usually see music in color, which sounds really bizarre,” she says. “I hear guitar parts like shooting green lights or whatever I see in my head. There’s just all this colorful stuff happening in the background – which makes me sound crazy. Like the song.”

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE APRIL 30, 2015 | PAGE 2 OF 7

Brett Eldredge’s New Single Takes A Crazy, Frenetic Journey

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

ELDREDGE

After years of watching it collect dust, this writer recently threw away a massive Rolodex jam packed with thousands of now-relic business cards. Turns out, I’m hardly alone in holding on to no longer useful office items. After reaching out to people in the country music business, I found plenty who amusingly admitted they are still clinging to a trusty piece of office equipment, technology, software or promo swag, sometimes just for sentimental reasons.

Cold River Records president Pete O’Heeron says he finally moved his own massive Rolodex to an office closet recently “for the first time in 28 years.” There it joined “a graveyard of computers … literally 20 years of computers. I can’t de-stroy them because I’m convinced I may need a piece of information stored in their hard drives,” he says.

Two industry execs cheerfully confessed to being pack rats when it comes to music business artifacts.

“I have BDS tracking from [as far back as] 1993 in my files still,” admits Side-walk Records VP promotion Lori Hartigan. “You never know when you might wanna look back. I also have at least two CD singles of almost every Arista Nash-ville single that I’ve ever worked — those that were hits and those that were not. I have one closet designated as the closet of broken dreams for the misses, not to mention my museum of cellphones and iPods. I [also] still have my Arista Nashville bathrobe. I still love it because it reminds me of a time I was cozy and covered with hits.”

Joe Redmond of Bullseye Marketing Research has No. 1 plaques and “promo software from Imprint Re-cords circa 1997. I don’t have a computer system that will run it, but I have it!” His record and radio stash also includes “a good collection of cups and mugs.” One thing he has gotten rid of: “I no longer have any of my old faux satin jackets from my old radio stations. I have a wife … You do the math.”

Blair Garner, host of Cumulus’ nationally syn-dicated America’s Morning Show, has “a big box of old cassette air checks ranging from my first few times on air in Canyon, Texas, all the way through to New York, and L.A. I never go back and listen to them. In fact, my old cassette tape player doesn’t even work. At some point, I keep telling myself I’ll have them transferred over to digital files. But then I ask myself, ‘If you don’t like listening to them, why even bother with the trans-fer?’ ” He’s also hanging on to “an old mini-disc player and a few discs from the early After MidNite days. We thought it was such cutting-edge technology,” he says. “Technology collecting dust in the back of an office closet.”

Also clinging to old technology is Hall of Fame songwriter Bobby Braddock, who says, “I still do my home demos and work tapes with an 8-track mixing board and ADAT tapes, which are really hard to find.” And AristoMedia Group president/CEO Jeff Walker admits, “Even with modern technology I still use my trusty calculator, which sits next to my ultra hi-speed modern computer on my desk. Old habits die hard, and it is still old faithful to me.”

Walker’s company harbors another antiquity in its video division: “A three-quarter-inch video tape machine, weighing in at about six tons,” according to VP radio marketing Rick Kelly. “It lives in some dark forgotten corner of the building. Nobody knows how it got here.”

Admitted Rolodex hoarders include radio voice talent John Willyard, pub-licist Ronna Rubin of Rubin Media and Average Joes Entertainment’s Claire Cook. Says Willyard of his trusty card files, “They retain so much history. Some

of my client stations go back to the early ’90s, and I have as many as three cards on one station, back and front, with all the program director and other person-nel changes. It’s blown my mind lately.” Cook says her Rolodex, which she has taken with her from label to label, “brings back great memories of all those folks and reminds me of my own evolution.”

Rubin says of her Rolodex, “Sure, it’s outlived its usefulness ... but if we ever face a massive and long-lasting power outage or worse — nuclear destruction — I’ll still be able to reach out and touch.” She also clings to an old VCR, saying, “How else am I going to watch Dwight Yoakam’s first performance on Letterman?”

Cassetty Entertainment president Todd Cassetty confesses that “after feel-ing like a pretty solid hoarder,” he recently initiated “a huge purge at my office and got rid of high-quality swag like a signed Cyndi Thomson ‘My World’ globe beach ball and a Toby Keith ‘Beer for My Horses’ bottle of whiskey. We also got rid of all the technological junk we accumulated over 14 years.”

Other industry execs also keep a treasure trove of beloved promotional items in their desk drawers. Kelly still has a guitar watch “that was swag for a record I worked in 2004. Every year I purge my desk and closets of stuff, but for some

reason I can’t get rid of this dumb little watch.”Publicist Craig Campbell of Campbell Entertain-

ment Group says, “One of the very few promo items I still have on display is a speaker from a drive-in movie theater that BNA Records sent out with John Ander-son’s [1993 “Money in the Bank”] single. They added a wire, so you could plug it into a stereo system, but it still sounded like crap.”

Rubin still has “a one-ounce platinum coin that was given to each member of the team behind Randy Tra-vis’ first platinum album, Storms of Life, by Mo Ostin, then-president of Warner Bros. Records.”

Cook has a life-sized wax replica of Kenny Rogers’ boot that his then-manager, Ken Kragen,

gave staffers for Christmas one year. “It’s a candle,” she says. “It’s terribly warped and somewhere in my

attic, [but] it was such a unique and funny gift, I never wanted to part with it.”Entertainment attorney Denise Nichols says in her closets, “label memo-

rabilia is abundant, from Arista ‘Ready, Fire, Aim’ water pistols made for a late-’90s Fan Fair event, to the ‘pink Cadillac’ Lee Roy Parnell gave everyone, fulfilling a promise he made to us when and if he got his first No. 1. Think Spinal Tap stage design for an understanding of comparable size.” Nichols says she holds on to boxes of such memorabilia because “it takes me back to a place and time when I didn’t even know how lucky I was to be where I was when I was there.”

Music journalist and Middle Tennessee State University recording industry department chair Beverly Keel says, “The best blanket I have and still use is a grey MCA Nashville blanket made out of thick, sweatshirt-like material. I think it was a Christmas gift from the early ’90s.” She plans to use it “until the industry turns around and labels start sending out Christmas gifts again.”

Duane Allen of the Oak Ridge Boys admits he is a “pack rat,” but what he stashes the most can pay off for the legendary band later. “I never throw away good songs,” he says. “We just recorded, on our very latest album Rock of Ages, a song called ‘Peace Within’ that I have had for over three decades, just waiting for the right project.”

But perhaps the best response to our inquiry comes from hit songwriter Jim Beavers, who quips, “I’m holding on to the notion that the song still matters.”

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE APRIL 30, 2015 | PAGE 3 OF 7

Record Biz Proves One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Treasure

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

The Stark Report finally bid its Rolodex goodbye.

ally. It seems like the business has become a lot more savvy about that. What would you say was the turning point? I have to give credit to [concert promoter] Rob Potts in the Australian market, starting to bring the big tours down with the big festivals he was doing. And to the launch of the C2C festivals in London, and now sort of across the continent. They are doing four or five markets now, Ireland and Scandinavia. It just used to be the U.S. and Canada, but when those big festivals came along, people started realizing

that they could go over there, that people like their music. I’m hoping that more markets continue to open up for us. I see Brazil as an opportunity, and I cer-tainly hope that we can tap into a lot more of the Hispanic market as a format.

Out of all those records that your dad did, what’s your favorite that he arranged? Sammi Smith’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” followed by the Johnny Cash arrangement from the Johnny Cash TV show, “Sunday Morn-ing Coming Down.” To me, they have his fingerprints on the string arrange-ments. I can really tell that Dad was sitting in a room somewhere writing those.

You expanded your company several times. How do you know when the timing is right? Whenever I’m with the labels or with the decision-makers, I ask them, “What are you doing that you need independent help for? What’s something that your people just don’t have time for?” I sort of try to explore those niches. We started with press and PR, and then we went into video pro-motion, and then we went into radio promotion, then we went into dance-club promotion and then into the digital space. You just sort of try to predict things and you try to look ahead. I think it goes back to being self-educated and looking at the trades and finding out where you think the next big thing is coming from.

As a native Australian, how long did it take before you felt like America was your home? That’s a tough question. The first three or four years in a new country, it takes awhile. When I left Australia, I took six months off and just toured Europe. I went up to Hong Kong first and went across to Europe and just took my time at everything, and then I came here. I worked for a CPA firm in Nashville for a few months until I got brought into the music business. When Con Brio was started, they wanted me to do the books at night, which I started doing, and once you get in the music business, it’s like a big vacuum cleaner: It sucks you right in. It’s like a drug. Once you’re hooked, you’re hooked. I haven’t looked back after that. —Tom Roland

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE APRIL 30, 2015 | PAGE 4 OF 7

Q U E ST I O N S

AnsweredJeff Walker

President, AristoMedia Group

After running the independent Con Brio label for three years, Jeff Walker launched AristoMedia in April 1980 from the attic at his Nash-ville home. There were only a handful of independent publicists at the time, and Walker inevitably added several other facets to his compa-ny, usually before the marketplace caught up. The son of arranger Bill Walker, he is celebrating several anniversaries: 35 years for Aristo, 30 years as a Country Radio Broadcasters board member and 20 since he first joined the Country Music Association board. Current Aristo PR clients include Travis Tritt, John Anderson, Keb’ Mo’ and newcomer Clare Dunn.

This is the 35th anniversary for Aristo. Is it a different business now than when you started? Everything is so different. When we started, I was using stamps and a machine to crank out envelopes, and every Monday I would walk around handing out press releases to Kip Kirby, Bill Williams and Gerry Wood at Billboard, Neal Pond at Music City News, Jim Sharp at Cash Box. Now I can press a button and I can have a press release on somebody’s desk in Australia in a millisecond, so it’s just completely changed — the access, the information, how you can do research for your tour press. The tools you have now are fantas-tic. I wish I’d had those when I started the company.

Why have you stayed on the CRB board for so long? Just because I love the people, I love the board, I love being involved. I’ve been in-volved in the CMA board since 1995 as well. I just love to contribute, and I think when you are in an industry, I think what you have to do is really try to give back a certain amount of your time.

One of the things you pushed for was for Nashville to think glob-

HANK WILLIAMS JR.: NASH ICONBig Machine Label Group’s Nash Icon label has a specific “mission,” which rhymes with “fam-ily tradition,” so Hank Williams Jr. fits right in as the latest “addition” to the roster, which is fo-cused on established acts from the last 25 years who still have an audience. Any “premonition” of a new album is appropriate. One is expected by the end of 2015. Also signed to Nash Icon are Reba McEntire, Ronnie Dunn and Martina McBride.

Willie’s Reserve isn’t Willie Nelson’s only business venture these days. He’s also part of the creative team for Inside Arlyn, a live-music TV series that has shot two episodes at Austin’s Arlyn Studios, according to the Austin Business Journal. The series has received financial backing from the Raptor Group, headed by Jim Pallotta, who has ties to the Boston Celtics, the Berklee College of Music

and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Inside Arlyn is being shopped to networks. David Lee Murphy wrote several Kenny Chesney hits — including “Pirate Flag,” “Til It’s Gone” and “Living in Fast Forward” — so it wasn’t a huge stretch for Murphy to make a surprise appearance during Chesney’s tour-launching March 26 show at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. Turns out the connection is much deeper: Chesney and Buddy Cannon have co-produced a 10-song album on Murphy, No Zip Code. A release date and label home are pending. The Oak Ridge Boys are headed into the Country Music Hall of Fame, but they’re also being saluted by another organization: the American Legion, which plans to present them with the Patriot Award during the agency’s annual con-vention Sept. 1-3 in Baltimore. It’s not country music’s only military moment of late: Sunny Sweeney performed for wounded warriors on April 24 in asso-ciation with The Washington Times. The next day, she was a guest of the Times at the National Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

MIDWEEK NEWS UPDATE

WILLAMS JR.

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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

l1 2 5 21 GIRL CRUSH ★★No. 1 (1 week) /Streaming Gainer★★ Little Big Town J.JOYCE (L.ROSE,L.MCKENNA,H.LINDSEY) CAPITOL NASHVILLE

1

2 1 1 26 TAKE YOUR TIME Sam Hunt Z.CROWELL,S.MCANALLY (S.HUNT,J.OSBORNE,S.MCANALLY) MCA NASHVILLE 0 1

l3 4 7 13 SIPPIN’ ON FIRE Florida Georgia Line J.MOI (R.CLAWSON,M.DRAGSTREM,C.TAYLOR) REPUBLIC NASHVILLE 3

4 3 2 16 HOMEGROWN Zac Brown Band J.JOYCE,Z.BROWN (Z.BROWN,W.DURRETTE,N.MOON) VARVATOS/REPUBLIC/BMLG/SOUTHERN GROUND 2

l5 6 6 28 SAY YOU DO Dierks Bentley R. COPPERMAN (M.RAMSEY,S.MCANALLY,T. ROSEN) CAPITOL NASHVILLE 5

l6 5 3 35 DRINKING CLASS Lee Brice M.MCCLURE,K.JACOBS,L.BRICE (J.KEAR,D.FRASIER,E.M.HILL) CURB 0 3

l7 8 10 23 DON’T IT Billy Currington D.HUFF (J.JOHNSTON,A.GORLEY,R.COPPERMAN) MERCURY 7

l8 7 8 31 A GUY WALKS INTO A BAR Tyler Farr J.CATINO,J.KING (M.PEIRCE,J.SINGLETON,B.TURSI) COLUMBIA NASHVILLE 7

l9 9 11 14 RAISE ‘EM UP Keith Urban Featuring Eric Church N.CHAPMAN,K.URBAN (J.JOHNSTON,JEFFREY STEELE,T.DOUGLAS) HIT RED/CAPITOL NASHVILLE 9

l10 11 12 16 SMOKE ★★Airplay Gainer★★ A Thousand Horses D.COBB (M.HOBBY,J.M.NITE,R.COPPERMAN) REPUBLIC NASHVILLE

10

l11 20 27 6 SANGRIA ★★Digital Gainer★★ Blake Shelton S.HENDRICKS (J.T.HARDING,J.OSBORNE,T. ROSEN) WARNER BROS./WMN

11

l12 12 14 16 LITTLE RED WAGON Miranda Lambert F.LIDDELL,C.AINLAY,G.WORF (A.MAE,GINSBERG J.) RCA NASHVILLE 5

l13 14 13 14 LITTLE TOY GUNS Carrie Underwood M.BRIGHT (C.UNDERWOOD,C. DESTEFANO,H.LINDSEY) 19/ARISTA NASHVILLE 13

l14 13 16 12 WILD CHILD Kenny Chesney With Grace Potter B.CANNON,K.CHESNEY (K.CHESNEY,S.MCANALLY,J.OSBORNE) BLUE CHAIR/COLUMBIA NASHVILLE 13

l15 16 17 13 DIAMOND RINGS AND OLD BARSTOOLS Tim McGraw With Catherine Dunn B.GALLIMORE,T.MCGRAW (L.LAIRD,B.DEAN,J.SINGLETON) MCGRAW/BIG MACHINE 15

l16 19 20 22 LOVE ME LIKE YOU MEAN IT Kelsea Ballerini F.G.WHITEHEAD (K.BALLERINI,J.KERR,F.G.WHITEHEAD,L.CARPENTER) BLACK RIVER 16

17 15 15 25 SHE DON’T LOVE YOU Eric Paslay M.ALTMAN (E.PASLAY,J.WAYNE) EMI NASHVILLE 15

l18 18 18 30 LOVE YOU LIKE THAT Canaan Smith B.BEAVERS,J.ROBBINS (C.SMITH,B.BEAVERS,J.BEAVERS) MERCURY 18

l19 17 19 10 LIKE A WRECKING BALL Eric Church J.JOYCE (E.CHURCH,C.BEATHARD) EMI NASHVILLE 17

l20 21 22 25 BABY BE MY LOVE SONG Easton Corbin C.CHAMBERLAIN (J.COLLINS,BRETT JAMES) MERCURY 20

21 23 23 26 I SEE YOU Luke Bryan J.STEVENS (L.BRYAN,L.LAIRD,A.GORLEY) CAPITOL NASHVILLE 1

l22 26 28 8 TONIGHT LOOKS GOOD ON YOU Jason Aldean M.KNOX (D.DAVIDSON,R.AKINS,A.GORLEY) BROKEN BOW 8

l23 25 32 16 GOING OUT LIKE THAT Reba T.BROWN (B.HAYSLIP,R.AKINS,J.SELLERS) NASH ICON/VALORY 23

l24 24 24 12 CRUSHIN’ IT Brad Paisley L.WOOTEN,B.PAISLEY (B.PAISLEY,K.LOVELACE,L.T.MILLER) ARISTA NASHVILLE 24

l25 27 25 17 ONE HELL OF AN AMEN Brantley Gilbert D.HUFF (B.GILBERT,M.DEKLE,B.DAVIS) VALORY 25

Hot Country SongsBILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE APRIL 30, 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 28 26 9 GAMES Luke Bryan J.STEVENS (L.BRYAN,A.GORLEY) CAPITOL NASHVILLE 23

l27 33 38 16 RIOT Rascal Flatts J.DEMARCUS,RASCAL FLATTS (J.BOYER,S.HAZE) BIG MACHINE 27

l28 NEW 1 SHOTGUN ★★Hot Shot Debut★★ Christina Aguilera B.MILLER (S.MCCONNELL,A.MAE) ABC STUDIOS/LIONS GATE/BIG MACHINE

28

l29 31 30 7 KISS YOU IN THE MORNING Michael Ray S.HENDRICKS (J.WILSON,M.WHITE) WARNER BROS./WEA 29

l30 30 31 9 YOUNG & CRAZY Frankie Ballard M.ALTMAN,S.HENDRICKS (A.GORLEY,S.MCANALLY,R.AKINS) WARNER BROS./WAR 30

l31 NEW 1 LOSE MY MIND Brett Eldredge R. COPPERMAN,B.ELDREDGE (B.ELDREDGE,H.MORGAN,R.COPPERMAN,B.BURTON,T.D.CALLAWAY,G.F.REVERBERI,G.P.REVERBERI) ATLANTIC/WMN 31

l32 32 21 3 CRASH AND BURN Thomas Rhett D.HUFF,J.FRASURE (J.FRASURE,C.STAPLETON) VALORY 21

33 34 35 10 I GOT THE BOY Jana Kramer S.HENDRICKS (T.NICHOLS,C.HARRINGTON,J.L.SPEARS) ELEKTRA NASHVILLE/WAR 33

l34 NEW 1 LOVING YOU EASY Zac Brown Band Z.BROWN (Z.BROWN,N.MOON,A.ANDERSON) VARVATOS/REPUBLIC/BMLG/SOUTHERN GROUND 34

l35 36 34 16 HELL OF A NIGHT Dustin Lynch M.J.CONES (Z.CROWELL,A.SANDERS,J.BOYER) BROKEN BOW 34

l36 37 36 12 I’M TO BLAME Kip Moore B.JAMES (K.MOORE,J.WEAVER,W.DAVIS) MCA NASHVILLE 31

37 29 — 2 LET IT GO George Strait C.AINLAY,G.STRAIT (G.STRAIT,B.STRAIT,K.GATTIS) MCA NASHVILLE 29

38 35 37 10 FLY Maddie & Tae D.HUFF (M.MARLOW,T.DYE,T.VARTANYAN) DOT 35

l39 40 40 17 TROUBLE Gloriana M.SERLETIC (R.REINERT,M.GOSSIN,R.COPPERMAN,J.M.NITE) EMBLEM/WARNER BROS./WAR 39

l40 39 39 6 BISCUITS Kacey Musgraves K.MUSGRAVES,L.LAIRD,S.MCANALLY (K.MUSGRAVES,S.MCANALLY,B.CLARK) MERCURY 28

l41 41 41 16 GONNA WANNA TONIGHT Chase Rice C. DESTEFANO (S.MCANALLY,J.M.NITE,J.ROBBINS) DACK JANIELS/COLUMBIA NASHVILLE 34

42 42 42 10 RIDE Chase Rice C. DESTEFANO (J.SOMERS-MORALES,D.C.TARPLEY JR.) DACK JANIELS/COLUMBIA NASHVILLE 38

43 38 33 20 HARD TO BE COOL Joe Nichols M.J.CONES (R.HATCH,J.SELLERS) RED BOW 32

l44 45 48 3 STAY A LITTLE LONGER Brothers Osborne J.JOYCE (J. OSBORNE,T.J. OSBORNE,S.MCANALLY) EMI NASHVILLE 44

l45 44 47 4 NOTHIN’ LIKE YOU Dan + Shay C. DESTEFANO (D.SMYERS,S.MOONEY,A.GORLEY,C. DESTEFANO) WARNER BROS./WAR 44

l46 43 43 7 BREAK UP WITH HIM Old Dominion S.MCANALLY (M.RAMSEY,T. ROSEN,B.TURSI,G.SPRUNG,W.SELLERS) REESMACK/RCA NASHVILLE 43

l47 RE-ENTRY 2 LET ME SEE YA GIRL Cole Swindell M.CARTER (C.SWINDELL,M.CARTER,J.STEVENS) WARNER BROS./WMN 44

l48 NEW 1 IT’S ALL GOING TO POT Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard B.CANNON (B.CANNON,J.JOHNSON,L.SHELL) LEGACY 48

l49 48 49 3 ALREADY CALLIN’ YOU MINE Parmalee NV (M.THOMAS,S.THOMAS,B.KNOX,P.O’DONNELL,W.KIRBY) STONEY CREEK 48

50 22 — 2 GIRL CRUSH Meghan Linsey B.APPLEBERRY (L.ROSE,L.MCKENNA,H.LINDSEY) REPUBLIC 22

For week ending April 26, 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 APRIL 30, 2015 | PAGE 6 OF 7

ALBUMSDIGITAL

ALBUMS*DIGITAL TRACKS

This Week 574,000 288,000 2,505,000

Last Week 607,000 255,000 2,546,000

Change -5.4% 12.9% -1.6%

This Week Last Year 504,000 191,000 3,043,000

Change 13.9% 50.8% -17.7%

*Digital album sales are also counted within album sales.

Weekly Unit SalesYear-Over-Year Album Sales2014 2015 CHANGE

Albums 9,772,000 8,380,000 -14.2%

Digital Tracks 46,951,000 39,078,000 -16.8%

YEAR-TO-DATE

Overall Unit Sales

2014 2015 CHANGE

Physical 6,401,000 5,234,000 9.0%

Digital 3,372,000 3,145,000 -6.7%

Sales by Album Format

SALES, AIRPLAY & STREAMING DATA COMPILED BY

’15

’14

DIGITAL TRACKS SALES

’15

’14

9.8 million

8.4 million

000.0 million

’14

’13

39.1 million

46.9 million

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l1 1 18 GIRL CRUSH LITTLE BIG TOWN (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

l2 2 26 TAKE YOUR TIME SAM HUNT (MCA Nashville/UMGN)

l3 11 4 SANGRIA BLAKE SHELTON (Warner Bros./Warner)

4 4 15 HOMEGROWN ZAC BROWN BAND (Varvatos/Southern Ground/BMLG/Republic)

l5 5 9 SIPPIN’ ON FIRE FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE (Republic Nashville/BMLG)

l6 8 15 LITTLE RED WAGON MIRANDA LAMBERT (RCA Nashville/SMN)

l7 NEW SHOTGUN CHRISTINA AGUILERA (ABC Studios/Lions Gate/Big Machine/BMLG)

8 7 11 LIKE A WRECKING BALL ERIC CHURCH (EMI Nashville/UMGN)

l9 20 7 GOING OUT LIKE THAT REBA (Nash Icon/Valory/BMLG)

10 6 29 AIN’T WORTH THE WHISKEY COLE SWINDELL (Warner Bros./WMN)

11 10 13 SMOKE A THOUSAND HORSES (Republic Nashville/BMLG)

l12 NEW LOSE MY MIND BRETT ELDREDGE (Atlantic/WMN)

l13 15 11 DON’T IT BILLY CURRINGTON (Mercury/UMGN)

l14 22 6 TONIGHT LOOKS GOOD ON YOU JASON ALDEAN (Broken Bow/BBMG)

15 14 26 LOVE YOU LIKE THAT CANAAN SMITH (Mercury/UMGN)

16 17 23 A GUY WALKS INTO A BAR TYLER FARR (Columbia Nashville/SMN)

17 16 14 LITTLE TOY GUNS CARRIE UNDERWOOD (19/Arista Nashville/SMN)

l18 19 14 RAISE ‘EM UP KEITH URBAN FEAT. ERIC CHURCH (Hit Red/Capitol Nashville)

19 13 9 WILD CHILD KENNY CHESNEY WITH GRACE POTTER (Blue Chair/Columbia Nashville/SMN)

20 18 33 DRINKING CLASS LEE BRICE (Curb)

21 21 11 LOVE ME LIKE YOU MEAN IT KELSEA BALLERINI (Black River)

22 12 19 SHE DON’T LOVE YOU ERIC PASLAY (EMI Nashville/UMGN)

l23 34 2 RIOT RASCAL FLATTS (Big Machine/BMLG)

l24 23 10 DIAMOND RINGS AND OLD BARSTOOL TIM MCGRAW WITH CATHERINE DUNN (McGraw/Big Machine/BMLG)

25 9 2 LET IT GO GEORGE STRAIT (MCA Nashville/UMGN)

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26 25 18 SAY YOU DO DIERKS BENTLEY (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

l27 26 5 BABY BE MY LOVE SONG EASTON CORBIN (Mercury/UMGN)

l28 28 9 GAMES LUKE BRYAN (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

29 27 3 CRASH AND BURN THOMAS RHETT (Valory/BMLG)

l30 33 30 MAKE ME WANNA THOMAS RHETT (Valory/BMLG)

31 29 16 RIDE CHASE RICE (Dack Janiels)

l32 35 7 ONE HELL OF AN AMEN BRANTLEY GILBERT (Valory/BMLG)

33 32 10 I GOT THE BOY JANA KRAMER (Elektra Nashville/WMN)

l34 40 24 I SEE YOU LUKE BRYAN (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

35 30 5 CRUSHIN’ IT BRAD PAISLEY (Arista Nashville/SMN)

l36 47 37 DAY DRINKING LITTLE BIG TOWN (Capitol Nashville/UMGN)

l37 41 45 LEAVE THE NIGHT ON SAM HUNT (MCA Nashville/UMGN)

38 3 2 GIRL CRUSH MEGHAN LINSEY (Republic)

39 24 27 LONELY EYES CHRIS YOUNG (RCA Nashville/SMN)

40 36 74 THIS IS HOW WE ROLL FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE FEAT. LUKE BRYAN (Republic Nashville/BMLG)

l41 NEW KISS YOU IN THE MORNING MICHAEL RAY (Warner Bros./WMN)

l42 NEW LOVING YOU EASY ZAC BROWN BAND (Varvatos/Southern Ground/BMLG/Republic)

l43 RE-ENTRY SHOTGUN RIDER TIM MCGRAW (McGraw/Big Machine/BMLG)

44 45 39 BURNIN’ IT DOWN JASON ALDEAN (Broken Bow/BBMG)

45 43 146 CRUISE FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE (Republic Nashville/BMLG)

46 46 38 AMERICAN KIDS KENNY CHESNEY (Blue Chair/Columbia Nashville/SMN)

l47 RE-ENTRY I DON’T DANCE LEE BRICE (Curb)

48 44 25 JUST GETTIN’ STARTED JASON ALDEAN (Broken Bow/BBMG)

49 38 31 SUN DAZE FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE (Republic Nashville/BMLG)

l50 RE-ENTRY BISCUITS KACEY MUSGRAVES (Mercury/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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1 1 — 2 REBA Love SomebodyNASH ICON/VALORY /BMLG 1

l2 3 2 26 SAM HUNT MontevalloMCA NASHVILLE 021502/UMGN 1

l3 7 12 27 LITTLE BIG TOWN Pain KillerCAPITOL NASHVILLE 021360*/UMGN 3

l4 NEW 1 RANDY ROGERS & WADE BOWEN Hold My Beer, Vol. 1LIL’ BUDDY TOONS 38010*/GOOD TIME 4

l5 10 14 47 MIRANDA LAMBERT PlatinumRCA NASHVILLE 379278/SMN 0 1

6 4 5 28 FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE Anything GoesREPUBLIC NASHVILLE /BMLG 0 1

7 8 8 63 ERIC CHURCH The OutsidersEMI NASHVILLE 019402*/UMGN 1 1

8 2 — 2 DWIGHT YOAKAM Second Hand HeartWARNER BROS. 546622/WMN 2

9 6 1 4 DARIUS RUCKER Southern StyleCAPITOL NASHVILLE 021931/UMGN 1

10 5 3 4 VARIOUS ARTISTS NOW That’s What I Call ACM Awards: 50 YearsUNIVERSAL/SONY MUSIC /UME 3

l11 12 6 29 JASON ALDEAN Old Boots, New DirtBROKEN BOW 7105/BBMG 1 1

12 9 4 7 LUKE BRYAN Spring Break... Checkin’ OutCAPITOL NASHVILLE 022540/UMGN 1

13 11 13 90 LUKE BRYAN Crash My PartyCAPITOL NASHVILLE 018733/UMGN 2 1

l14 13 17 62 COLE SWINDELL Cole SwindellWARNER BROS. 541372/WMN 2

l15 20 23 24 GARTH BROOKS Man Against MachinePEARL/RCA NASHVILLE 501135/SMN 1 1

l16 16 21 30 BLAKE SHELTON BRINGING BACK THE SUNSHINEWARNER BROS. 544918/WMN 0 1

17 14 25 61 DIERKS BENTLEY RiserCAPITOL NASHVILLE 019404/UMGN 1

l18 NEW 1 WILLIAM CLARK GREEN Ringling RoadBILL GREASE 99463/THIRTY TIGERS 18

19 15 10 36 CHASE RICE Ignite The NightCOLUMBIA NASHVILLE 22573/DACK JANIELS 1

l20 19 11 20 CARRIE UNDERWOOD Greatest Hits: Decade #119/ARISTA NASHVILLE 500876/SMN 0 1

21 17 9 5 VARIOUS ARTISTS 2015 Academy Of Country Music Awards ZinePakZINEPAK 70255 WMEX 4

l22 23 22 31 KENNY CHESNEY The Big RevivalBLUE CHAIR/COLUMBIA NASHVILLE 306274/SMN 1

23 18 7 33 LEE BRICE I Dont DanceCURB 79392* 1

l24 25 18 31 TIM MCGRAW Sundown Heaven TownMCGRAW/BIG MACHINE TM0200A/BMLG 1

l25 21 19 49 BRANTLEY GILBERT Just As I AmVALORY BG0200A/BMLG 0 1

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l1 1 17 TAKE YOUR TIME SAM HUNT

l2 2 9 GIRL CRUSH LITTLE BIG TOWN

l3 4 61 THIS IS HOW WE ROLL FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE FEAT. LUKE BRYAN

l4 3 44 LEAVE THE NIGHT ON SAM HUNT

l5 5 57 PLAY IT AGAIN LUKE BRYAN

l6 6 7 LITTLE RED WAGON MIRANDA LAMBERT

l7 10 5 SIPPIN’ ON FIRE FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE

l8 8 108 CRUISE FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE

l9 7 10 HOMEGROWN ZAC BROWN BAND

l10 9 70 BOTTOMS UP BRANTLEY GILBERT

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l11 11 42 DIRT FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE

l12 13 24 DRINKING CLASS LEE BRICE

l13 14 3 LIKE A WRECKING BALL ERIC CHURCH

l14 16 89 THAT’S MY KIND OF NIGHT LUKE BRYAN

l15 15 5 DON’T IT BILLY CURRINGTON

l16 17 8 SAY YOU DO DIERKS BENTLEY

17 12 27 SUN DAZE FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE

l18 18 20 I SEE YOU LUKE BRYAN

l19 19 9 AIN’T WORTH THE WHISKEY COLE SWINDELL

l20 24 42 I DON’T DANCE LEE BRICE

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

LOVING YOU EASY Varvatos/BMLG/Southern Ground Zac Brown Band +284

TONIGHT LOOKS GOOD ON YOU Broken Bow Jason Aldean +278

SMOKE Republic Nashville A Thousand Horses +242

ONE HELL OF AN AMEN Valory Brantley Gilbert +182

GAMES Capitol Nashville Luke Bryan +177

SANGRIA Warner Bros./WMN Blake Shelton +173

SIPPIN’ ON FIRE Republic Nashville Florida Georgia Line +157

YOUNG & CRAZY Warner Bros./WAR Frankie Ballard +147

RIOT Big Machine Rascal Flatts +146

CRASH AND BURN Valory Thomas Rhett +134

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 APRIL 30, 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