When Chris Youthful won the reality competitors Nashville Star in 2006, his profession didn’t specifically take off.

In contrast to American Idol‘s nation success story Scotty McCreery, this deep-voiced crooner moved rather gradually out of the gate. His late-2006 debut single “Drinkin’ Me Lonely” only reached quantity 42 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, and its followup, “You’re Gonna Enjoy Me,” petered out in 48th location.

Everything modified in 2009, although, when Young’s “Gettin’ You Residence (The Black Dress Song)” struck a chord with nation listeners and climbed the chart for eight sound months, eventually reaching No. one on October 24, 2009. Considering that then, the 26 year-outdated has been on an outstanding winning streak.

His following single, “The Guy I Want To Be” reached the top rated spot in Could 2010, followed a handful of months later by a chart-topping re-release of “Voices,” a track which had only reached quantity 37 when it was sent to radio in 2008. In August 2011, the lead single off of Young’s current CD Neon, “Tomorrow,” became his most significant hit but — reaching range one particular and becoming named the fourth most significant nation song on the year-end chart.

Nowadays, Young, who just lately scored a breakthrough artist trophy at the American Country Awards, is celebrating his fifth-straight smash, “You,” which has reached the best of the chart for the week of February 11, placing him in the identical camp as Blake Shelton and the Zac Brown Band, two other acts who’ve lately scored five consecutive quantity ones.

Young’s album Neon has scanned about 300,000 copies so far — a bit significantly less than 1 might assume offered his radio power (Is he the Rihanna of nation?), but it is clear that the baritone has a long, lucrative long term ahead of him. If he keeps releasing wealthy, charming cuts like “You,” who understands where his streak will finish?

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The 45th Annual CMA Awards, country music’s equivalent to the Grammys, will air Nov. 9 on ABC. The performance-packed show already has a number of potential water cooler moments, including Keith Urban, Brad Paisley and Vince Gill’s salute to Glen Campbell;  Lionel Richie singing a number of his hits with top country artists (all of whom appear on his forthcoming country album); the past and present meeting in Blake Shelton and Kenny Loggins’ duet on “Footloose, ” and appearances by Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, American Idols’ Scotty McCreery, Taylor Swift and Miranda Lambert. No Gwyneth Paltrow repeat performance though.

In between the singing, they’ll give away a few awards. Here are my predictions for the winners. It’s a tough year with no clear front runner in many categories (I left out vocal group since Sugarland is a lock). Tune back here the night of the show as I’ll be blogging the proceedings live.

Single of the Year (award goes to artist and producer)
“A Little Bit Stronger,” Sara Evans
“Colder Weather,” Zac Brown Band
“Don’t You Wanna Stay,” Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson
“Honey Bee,” Blake Shelton
“If I Die Young,” The Band Perry

“If I Die Young” has a lock on song of the year, but I don’t know if it has the same hold on single in this very competitive category.  Plus, I don’t understand why “Dirt Road Anthem” isn’t on this list as it would be my winner. All the songs were huge hits and my favorite is “Colder Weather,” but probably only because it would have made a great James Taylor tune (loved his duet with ZBB on it, by the way). Shelton’s performance on the sweet, uncomplicated  “Honey Bee” is classic country.
Winner:  “Honey Bee,” Blake Shelton

Album of the Year
“All About Tonight,” Blake Shelton
“My Kinda Party,” Jason Aldean
“Speak Now,” Taylor Swift
“This Is Country Music,” Brad Paisley
“You Get What You Give,” Zac Brown Band

This is between “My Kinda Party,” which has stayed in the top 5 of the Billboard country albums chart for a full year and really marked Aldean’s breakthrough, and “Speak Now,” which started out incredibly strong (1 million its first week) and has still sold tremendously well. I don’t know if an artist on an indie label has ever won this award so Aldean may be the first to do so, however, we think Swift will prevail.
Winner: “Speak Now”

Song of the Year (award goes to songwriters)
“Colder Weather” (Zac Brown, Wyatt Durrette, Levi Lowrey and Coy Bowles)
“Dirt Road Anthem” (Brantley Gilbert and Colt Ford)
“If I Die Young” (Kimberly Perry)
“Mean” (Taylor Swift)
“You And Tequila” (Matraca Berg and Deana Carter)

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Image Credit: Andrew Yee

After 35 weeks on the chart, Adele’s smash album 21, which has yet to leave the Top 5, rose back into the number one spot on the Billboard 200 this week, selling an additional 106,000 copies.

That number pushed 21‘s total to a whopping 4.1 million copies, by far the biggest selling album of 2011. All told, the “Someone Like You” singer has spent 13 non-consecutive weeks atop the chart this year. Now, if she could just fix those dang vocal cords!

Christian band Casting Crowns finished close behind in second place with first-week sales of their album Come to the Well at 99,000 copies. The band’s last album, 2009′s Until the Whole World Hears, got off to a stronger start with 167,000 copies sold, but to be fair, that disc still holds the record for the highest Christian-album debut in history. Come to the Well‘s 99,000 debut is nothing to cast a stone (or crown, for that matter) at.

In third place, Scotty McCreery continues to impress as his album Clear As Day dipped just 36 percent to 57,000. That gives the country balladeer three-week sales of 342,000. His runner-up, Lauren Alaina fell down to tenth place, dropping 63 percent in her second week to 26,000. Her record, Wildflower, has now sold 95,000 copies, which isn’t incredible, but it’s not half bad considering Alaina’s lead single, “Like My Mother Does,” only peaked at number 36 on the country chart. (Not all American Idol alums are as fortunate as these two…)

Last week’s chart-topper Evanescence falls back into fourth, as their self-titled third album fell 69 percent to 40,000. It has sold 167,000 after two weeks. Meanwhile ,Tony Bennett’s Duets II rises one spot into fifth place with another 39,000 copies sold. The 85 year-old crooner’s set has moved 434,000 copies in five weeks, and sales should remain strong through the holidays.

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Image Credit: Michael Becker/Fox

American Idol Season 9 runner-up Crystal Bowersox has split with label RCA/Jive, a rep for the singer confirmed yesterday to TVLine.

Bowersox, whose debut album Farmer’s Daughter sold 210,000 copies (compared to Idol winner Lee Dewyze’s Live It Up, which moved just 168,000 copies.), said, “For not having any radio play and any great promotion, I think I’ve done pretty well on sales … I’m able to provide a good, comfortable life for my family, and that’s what I wanted out of it.” She says that she expects that her second album will be released independently.

Reports of Bowersox’s split arrive just two weeks after news that Lee DeWyze had been dropped by RCA as well. Apparently, Season 9 of American Idol, which many viewers felt was lackluster edition, just didn’t produce a bankable star. (Although, technically, the jury’s out on third-place finisher Casey James, who just released his debut country single “Let’s Don’t Call It A Night.” He seems to be Season 9′s last hope.)

Image Credit: Frank Micelotta/Fox/Picture Group

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Image Credit: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

Fox has announced the nominees for their 2nd annual American Country Awards—you know, that country music awards show that isn’t the CMAs, ACMs, or the CMT Music Awards—which will be hosted by Trace Adkins and Kristin Chenoweth (can’t wait to see those two stand side-by-side!) on December 5.

Jason Aldean and Zac Brown Band, both of whom have had a pretty stellar 2011, lead the pack with eight nominations each, while newcomer Thompson Square nabbed a whopping seven nominations. The Band Perry and Taylor Swift each scored six.

Fresh off his strong debut week, American Idol winner Scotty McCreery received a nomination for Artist of the Year: New Artist (not to be confused with Artist of the Year: Breakthrough Artist), another signal that the country community has welcomed him warmly.

On the whole, the nominations are pretty much what you’d expect, but there are a few pleasant surprises. Pistol Annies scored a New Artist nomination, and Ashton Shepherd’s sassy “Look It Up” earned one for Music Video: Female. Both well-deserved.

The only real snub here seems like Blake Shelton’s smash single “Honey Bee,” which easily could have fit right into the Single of Year category.

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