Hands up! Now put them together and applaud. The Highwomen — that quartet of desperado dames — has seized the top of Billboard’s country albums chart, and it looks like they’re fond of the ritzy accommodations. To those of you who’ve been out of town for a while, the Highwomen consists of the individually star-level Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires and Natalie Hemby.
This new collection also sits at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 all-genre ranking.
The Highwomen’s name is, of course, a play on the Highwaymen — the ad hoc band made up of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson — that got together to tour in 1985 after scoring a No. 1 that year with Jimmy Webb’s reincarnation ballad, “Highwayman.”
The only other new album to hurrah in the Top 25 this week is Dive Bar Saints by Home Free. It sidles in at No. 4.
Meanwhile, Luke Bryan’s “Knockin’ Boots” props its feet up at No. 1 on the country airplay chart for the second week in a row.
There are three new songs — Jason Aldean’s “We Back,” charging in at No. 25, Rodney Atkins’ “Thank God for You” (No. 58) and Kip Moore’s “She’s Mine” (No. 60).
The No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 albums, in that order, are Luke Combs’ This One’s for You, the eponymous Dan + Shay and Morgan Wallen’s If I Know Me.
Completing the Top 5 songs list are Dierks Bentley’s “Living,” Chris Lane’s “I Don’t Know About You,” Justin Moore’s “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home” and Combs’ “Beer Never Broke My Heart.”
And that’s a wrap.