Blackberry Smoke Goes #1 in Album Sales with “You Hear Georgia”

Blackberry Smoke is back on top once again with the band’s latest album You Hear Georgia. It’s a position the Georgia-based Southern rock outfit is used to, bolstered by a supremely loyal fan base. Released on May 28th, You Hear Georgia sold 12,239 copies in pure album sales. This is good enough to put it at #1 in album sales in both country and rock, and #3 in all of music.

The album also racked up another nearly 1 million streams over its debut week, giving it total sales of 13,072 units. This is good enough to come in at #5 on the Billboard Country Albums chart behind titles from mega-streamers Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs, and #2 on the Billboard Rock Albums chart behind the recent release from 21 Pilots, Scaled and Icy.

Keeping You Hear Georgia out of the top spot in album sales in all of music was a mammoth performance by Taylor Swift’s album Evermore originally released on December 20th, 2020. It was finally issued on vinyl over the week, and sold a whopping 187,000 copies—a record for a vinyl title in the SoundScan era. This allowed Swift to top Olivia Rodrigo at #2, who debuted her album Sour.

Blackberry Smoke was the first independent outfit to upend the order on the album charts in country in 2015 when the release of Holding All The Roses went #1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart. This was the first time a non-mainstream supported artist or band was able to achieve this feat in the modern era. Blackberry Smoke’s 2016 album Like An Arrow did the same, before Billboard began significantly weighing streaming into the album charts.

You Hear Georgia saw Blackberry Smoke pairing up with fellow Georgia native Dave Cobb as producer for the first time, and collaborations with Jamey Johnson and Warren Haynes. The band also added two new members before the album in percussionist Preston Holcomb and guitarist Benji Shanks, adding new dimensions to the music. The Smoke also worked with backup singers The Black Bettys.

Many have been raving about You Hear Georgia as Blackberry Smoke’s best album yet.

© 2023 Saving Country Music