Top Country

The top of the country charts features a surprising mix of material. Billboard Top Country Hits is a series of compilation albums released by Rhino Records, each featuring ten hit country music recordings from a specific year, mostly number ones on the Billboard country singles chart.

Strait Country is the debut studio album by American country music artist George Strait, released on September 4, 1981 by MCA Records. The album's traditional country music approach—a mix of Texas honky tonk and the Bakersfield sound—presented a sharp contrast to the dominating trends within country music at that time. The album includes the singles "Unwound", "Down and Out", and "If You're Thinking You Want a Stranger (There's One Coming Home)", reaching 6, 16, and 3 respectively on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. The album peaked at number 26 on the US Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Strait Country has been certified platinum by the RIAA. The album was one of the first to be recorded and mixed digitally.

Kenneth Clark Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His early songwriting compositions were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums, performing as the group Loggins and Messina from 1972 to 1977. As a solo artist, Loggins experienced a string of soundtrack successes, including an Academy Award nomination for "Footloose" in 1984. His early soundtrack contributions date back to the film A Star Is Born in 1976, and for much of the 1980s and 1990s, he was known as "The Soundtrack King". Finally Home was released in 2013, shortly after Loggins formed the group Blue Sky Riders with Gary Burr and Georgia Middleman.

Country Music: Top Country Songs Chart | Billboard. This week's most popular country songs, based on radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen Music, sales data as compiled by Nielsen Music and streaming activity data from online music sources tracked by Nielsen Music.

Reigning ACM New Female Artist of the Year Lainey Wilson makes the top country album debut this week with the release of her sophomore album, Bell Bottom Country. Coming in at No. 12, the record racks up 10K in total first-week consumption (4.3K album only/6.6 million song streams), according to Luminate data.

As one half of the Judds, Wynonna Judd became one of the most popular and respected female country stars of her time. On her own since the early '90s, Judd demonstrated an eclecticism that increasingly confounded hardcore country fans and radio programmers but also helped her retain a core of admiring followers. Her solo records might stick with Judds-style country-pop or delve into roots rock, blues, gospel, adult contemporary pop, folk, or Southern R&B. Judd was born Christina Ciminella in Ashland, Kentucky, on May 30, 1964. Her mother, Naomi (then known by her birth name, Diana), was still in high school at the time, and her biological father abandoned the family almost immediately; Naomi married another man, Michael Ciminella, to create a traditional family unit. In 1968, they moved to Los Angeles, but the marriage disintegrated in 1972. Wynonna spent parts of the next few years living on welfare and returned to Kentucky with her mother in 1976.