Jerrod Earns a #1 Country Album Debut!!

2010’s Only Male Artist to Debut at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums Chart; Chart Entry Breaks Lady Antebellum’s #1 Streak

Album Met with Critical Acclaim, as Hit Single “Lover, Lover” Is Top 5 and Climbing

The jury is in, and Sea Gayle/Arista Nashville recording artist Jerrod Niemann has the #1 country album in the nation as Judge Jerrod & The Hung Jury tallies first-week sales approaching 34,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, breaking Lady Antebellum’s six-month streak atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart.

Judge Jerrod & The Hung Jury becomes only the second country album to debut at #1 this year and the first by any male country artist in that time. One of only three albums in 2010 to earn the #1 spot on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, the album also scores an impressive debut on the all-genre Billboard 200 album sales chart, where it enters at #7.

While the smash single “Lover, Lover” is climbing the country radio charts at #3 Billboard and #4 Country Aircheck, it’s the whole of Judge Jerrod & The Hung Jury that’s impressing fans, as well as media.

The New York Times cheers, “In sum, Mr. Niemann is a gentleman outlaw, but mostly he’s a history-minded technician on this thoughtful, magnetic record,” while USA Today declares, “You’ve got to love a country album that opens with a movie-trailer spoof and a ballad comparing one’s lover to cocaine. Niemann’s a freewheeling honky-tonker … and an intelligent singer/songwriter with a penchant for cornball humor.”

Niemann is also in esteemed company as one of only seven male artists on this week’s Billboard Top Country Albums chart to have hit #1 with their current releases, including Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, George Strait, Toby Keith, and Tim McGraw, who scored the most recent album chart-topper among country males last October.

Refreshingly creative, the 20 tracks on Judge Jerrod & The Hung Jury weave eight personality-packed skits alongside a dozen songs, ten of which were written or co-written by Jerrod, to deliver an engaging and entertaining mix of traditional influences with a contemporary edge. An old-school throwback to the days of an album as a musical journey, Judge Jerrod & The Hung Jury was crafted as a start-to-finish listening experience.

Fans can tune-in to catch Jerrod this Friday, July 23, on GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown, as well as on the new episode of CMT Insider, premiering this Saturday. Niemann is also the focus of a feature in the new issue of Country Weekly, on sale now.

Following a packed schedule of upcoming appearances, Jerrod will hit the road with headliner Gary Allan and Jerrod’s good friend, Randy Houser, on Allan’s “Get Off on the Pain Tour,” in September.