weekly SEPTEMBER 11, 2023, ISSUE 875
Power Gold: Luke Who’s Talking
Country Aircheck’s semi-annual Power Gold Top 100 shows a continued changing of the guard, with 10 songs from 2021 making the move from recurrent to gold – six of which debut in the top 10. While Lee Brice repeats at No. 1 with “One Of Them Girls,” a position the song has held since its debut last year, three collaborations debut in Nos. 2 through 4 – Dustin Lynch with MacKenzier Porter, Chris Young & Kane Brown and Jason Aldean & Carrie Underwood. The other three top 10 debuts are from Walker Hayes, Cole Swindell and the first of two from Luke Combs. See the full Top 100 on page 14. Speaking of Combs, it should be no surprise that his music now dominates the PG100. It was just three years ago Combs landed his first two titles Luke Combs on the PG100 (“Hurricane” and “When It Rains It Pours”). With the debuts of “Cold As You” and “Forever After All,” he now has nine titles on the list. Combs is the first artist to land nine since Jason Aldean in February 2021. A breakout along ownership lines (see chart page 9) shows unanimity among the three largest groups at the top, with each of the top two titles ranking among the top five most played for all three owners. Further down, the breakout finds more divergence. For example, Cole Swindell’s “Single Saturday Night” debuts in ninth place overall thanks in part to its secondplace rank among Audacy stations, but is No. 89 with Cumulus. Six songs have appeared on each of the 20 PG100s since it became a regular feature in 2009: Dierks Bentley’s “What Was I Thinkin’,” Kenny Chesney’s “I Go Back,” Billy Currington’s “Good Directions,” Rascal Flatts’ “Life Is A Highway,” Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” and Keith Urban’s “Somebody Like You.” The latter also holds the distinction as the oldest release on the list, still appearing 21 years since its peak. And if you need to fireproof anything, you may want to coat it with Darius Rucker’s burn-proof “Wagon Wheel.” The song has finished in the top six in all 13 lists since it became eligible in 2015. The August 2023 Power Gold Top 100 is compiled from Mediabase 24/7 and music airplay information from the Country Aircheck/Mediabase reporting panel for the week ending Aug. 26. See previous Power Gold charts over the past three years here: Apr. 3, 2023; Sept. 26, 2002; Feb. 22, 2022; Sep. 7, 2021; Feb. 8, 2021; Aug. 10, 2020; Feb. 10, 2020. –Chris Huff (continued on page 9)
Highwayman: New SiriusXM The Highway morning host Cody Alan celebrates with his team at Music Row Happy Hour. Pictured (l-r) are Kathleen Shea, Lauren Barocas, Johnny Chiang, Ania Hammar, Buzz Brainard, Alan, Alina Thompson, “Trapper” John Morris, Nick Coulson, Sydney Kamm and Sara Birse.
NSHOF: Kix Brooks
Spotlighting inductee Kix Brooks ahead of the Oct. 11 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala. The Shreveport, La. native started his songwriting career with hits by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Highway 101 and John Conlee. In 1990 he teamed with Ronnie Dunn to form Brooks & Dunn, and went on to sell more than 30 million albums and co-write many of their 20 No. 1s. When I got to Nashville in 1980, the city was dark but Music Row was full of energy. Jody Williams had been my roommate in military school and convinced me to come to town. He was running Kix Brooks Charlie Daniels’ publishing company. David Lee Murphy (fellow NSHoF 2023 inductee) and I worked for Charlie cleaning the Municipal Auditorium. We’d get $30 a night for sweeping the floors and working security.
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