Colter Wall, Shane Smith & the Saints See ‘Yellowstone’ Sales Boost

Listen ladies and gentlemen, it’s not just a hypothetical that when a song gets featured on Paramount’s Yellowstone series it’s a big deal. And yeah, I know a few of you folks are tired of seeing people rave about this show that some consider nothing more than a soap opera with swear words and spurs. Well tough shit. What’s going on at the moment is a musical phenomenon helping to support independent country music, and it deserves our attention.

Yellowstone is the biggest show on all of television at the moment according to the ratings, and the 3rd episode of Season 4 had music front and center even more than most of the show’s installments. The episode wasn’t just named after the Shane Smith and the Saints song “All I See Is You,” the song wasn’t just featured in a pivotal scene, right before the song plays, two of the characters name checked the band within the show’s dialogue.

What has happened since then? “All I See Is You” has shot up the iTunes charts—the best way we can gauge appeal for music in real time. Episode 3 aired on Sunday evening, November 14th. By Monday, “All I See Is You” was #4 in country on the iTunes charts, and #20 in all of music. By Tuesday (11-16), the song had risen to #3 in country, and #15 in all of music. In other words, interest in the song is sustaining, and growing.

Meanwhile, the album that “All I See Is You” appears on—2015’s Geronimo—has also seen a sizable boost. It is currently sitting at #6 in country on the iTunes charts, and #20 in all of music. And that’s not all. Shane Smith’s previous albums Coast (2013) sits at #18 in country, and Hail Mary (2019) is at #27. In other words, all of the music of Shane Smith and the Saints is seeing rising interest from the Yellowstone exposure. All of these numbers can be seen at iTunescharts.net, which is updated in real time.

Fans and followers of Shane Smith and the Saints have been waiting for their breakthrough moment for years. Though we won’t have any official numbers and chart placements until next week, we very well might look back at this Yellowstone episode as the moment this Texas-based band hit hyperdrive. “All I See Is You” is considered one of Shane Smith’s signature songs.

Meanwhile, Colter Wall’s song “Sleeping on the Blacktop” was also featured prominently in the episode’s opening scene, and is also seeing spiking interest. Though the song is not registering on any of the country charts (probably because of its metadata listing), the song currently sits at #12 on the iTunes all genre songs chart right between selections from Adele and Bruno Mars, while the album “Sleeping on the Blacktop” comes from—2015’s Imaginary Appalachia—is at #33 on the all genre albums chart.

These weren’t the only two artists featured on the episode. “Blind Lover” by The Steel Woods also made an appearance, as did the song “Ain’t Got Much” by Ross Shifflett.

And last but not least, even though the episode was named after Shane Smith’s “All I See Is You,” it was dedicated to none other than John Prine. His song “Caravan of Fools” was featured at the end of the episode. As some pointed out afterwards, Yellowstone did what the 2020 CMA Awards didn’t, which was pay tribute to Prine after his passing in April of 2020. The CMAs also failed to include an In Memoriam segment in 2021, while the Season 4 premier episode of Yellowstone doubled up the 2021 CMA Awards in ratings.

Speaking of ratings, though the numbers are still coming in, they remained very strong for Episode 3 of the series, just very slightly below the season premier episode, which pulled in a grand total of 14.7 million viewers. Yellowstone is currently the top series of the season across all television, including broadcast, cable, and premium networks, and the 2-part premier was the biggest episode on cable since the season premier of The Walking Dead in 2017.

In 2018 when Whiskey Myers was featured performing in a Yellowstone episode, it sent the Southern rock band from Texas on the meteoric rise they’re still enjoying today. We very well could see a similar trajectory for Shane Smith and the Saints. By not just playing a song in the background, but writing these bands and artists into the script, it’s making for exposure these bands have lacked from mainstream country radio and awards shows.

To see all the music featured in Season 4 of Yellowstone so far, CLICK HERE.

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