Welcome back! We’ve missed you terribly.
You’re just in time to shower a torrent of applause on Dustin Lynch, who now tops Billboard’s country airplay chart with “Ridin’ Roads.” It’s his seventh journey to the singles summit and it took him an arduous 41 weeks to get there. Lynch scored his first No. 1 in 2014 with “Where It’s At.”
Meanwhile, that North Carolina tsunami named Luke Combs now occupies both the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the top albums list with What You See Is What You Get and This One’s for You, respectively. Looks like he’s building a gated community.
No new albums enter the Top 25 slots this week, but Linda Ronstadt returns at No. 19 with her Greatest Hits.
We spy two new titles on the airplay rankings: Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani’s “Nobody But You,” arriving at No. 51, and Morgan Evans’ “Diamonds,” sparkling at No. 60.
Returning to action are Hootie & the Blowfish’s “Hold On” (No. 44), Matt Stell’s “Everywhere But On” (No. 57) and Granger Smith’s “That’s Why I Love Dirt Roads” (No. 58).
The No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 albums, in that order, are Blake Shelton’s Fully Loaded: God’s Country, Morgan Wallen’s If I Know Me and Old Dominion’s Old Dominion.
Rounding out the Top 5 songs are Combs’ “Even Though I’m Leaving” (last week’s No. 1), Lady Antebellum’s “What If I Never Get Over You,” Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber’s “10,000 Hours” and Jon Pardi’s “Heartache Medication.”
And now, pardon us while we sweep up the pieces of all the New Year’s resolutions you’ve already broken. Feels liberating, doesn’t it?
