Johnny Cash is dead and his house burned down and he’s the #1 artist in The 9513’s Last.fm group.

I’m not sure that any of those events are related, despite what Larry Gatlin may say. It’s no huge surprise that the Man in Black has been at or near the top of the charts for so long, given his musical output and his overwhelming popularity among Last.fm users. I’ve written about his Last.fm stats before, but his total number of plays (37,717,425) is more than the next 19 artists on the chart combined. Number 20, Taylor Swift, has the…

To answer my question from last week: Yes, George Strait did hit the 30-listener mark, and he did it by blowing away the rest of the field, a solid eight listeners ahead of the closest competition. With about 26 studio albums to his name and tons of compilations and holiday albums, Strait is one of the most prolific artists in today’s country music. Say you’re only a casual Strait fan and have, say, a quarter of his albums and a greatest hits package to cover his older stuff. That’s still about seven albums, or as many albums as Sugarland, Carrie…

I don’t know if you’re one to believe in ghosts or not, but one long-gone specter from country music’s past made a return to the charts this week. Gretchen Wilson popped up at #7 on the Top Artists with 17 people playing her music. This is the best showing for Wilson in months, with her generally showing up in the single-digit region. I tried to figure out why, as her new single, “If I Could Do It All Again,” is nowhere to be found on the Top Tracks chart. Her “Here For The Party” album is #10 on the Top…

So much for thinking that a two-hour special devoted to George Strait would make him the sure-fire #1 artist on the charts this week. The best he could do was tie for fourth with Patty Loveless at 22 listeners. Sugarland is on top this week with 24 listeners, and Alan Jackson and Johnny Cash are in second place with 23. The Artist of the ’00s did manage to beat the Artists of the ’90s (Garth Brooks with 21 listeners), ’80s (Alabama, 8 ), ’70s (Loretta Lynn, 9) and ’60s (Marty Robbins, 5) at…

It can take years for a singer’s career to build and grow before they become a major, chart-topping sensation. The end of that phase of a singer’s career can happen almost instantaneously. Sometimes it’s in the choice of albums they make. Patty Loveless was still producing Top 20 hits when she went into bluegrass mode. Since then, her singles have gone unplayed, and she’s now doing her own thing on an independent label. Sometimes it’s the fact that they refused to stay young. Dwight Yoakam’s career as a top-charting country singer essentially ended when he turned 40 years old,…

Considering that The 9513 Group jumped up to 65 members this week, I was interested to see how that would affect the charts. Would we start to turn into every other group on Last.fm and have Radiohead among the top artists? Thankfully, no. Instead, the infusion of new blood created one of the best Top 10 charts we’ve ever had.

Sure, we’ve got our share of chart-toppers, with George Strait (22 listeners), Alan Jackson (19), Sugarland (18) and Martina McBride (17) all being well-represented. But right at the top, with 23 listeners, is Dwight Yoakam, who hasn’t had a…

(This journal is now appearing on The 9513, but I'll keep it here as well.)

To the surprise of absolutely no one who’s looked at our group more than once, George Strait is the most popular artist of the week with 18 listeners, along with Alan Jackson. Martina McBride, riding the popularity of Shine, is second with 16 listeners. She’s tied with Lee Ann Womack, still (STILL) riding the popularity of Call Me Crazy, and Tim McGraw, who is riding the popularity of…what, exactly? The third or fourth repackaging of his earlier work? The…

Once again, it's time to consider what a 9513-run radio radio station would sound like. Going by this week's results, George Strait (19 listeners) would be the most-played artist. Considering his career output, that's pretty fair. Then we have Sugarland (17), but Miranda Lambert gets played just as often. Patty Loveless and Johnny Cash (16) get played just a bit more often than Taylor Swift and Keith Urban (15), and Dolly Parton and Alan Jackson are right there with them. Heck, there's even room for the likes of Waylon Jennings (11) and Hayes Carll, as well as Jake Owen…

Sugarland being at the top of the charts around here isn't a big surprise. Sugarland being so far ahead of everyone else, though, is another story. With 27 listeners, the duo set the record for biggest chart presence, with fully half of this group's members listening to them last week. Was it the songwriting abilities or the superior vocals of Jennifer Nettles? Was it the hat worn by Kristian Bush? The world may never know.

Martina McBride is still riding high from her new album release, as she tied Alan Jackson for second place, with 22 listeners. Lee Ann Womack…

Welcome to our two new members, bringing us up over the 50-person mark. Dominating the country music world has to start somewhere, and we're on our way.

No updates last week, but if I had to summarize, it was all Martina McBride, all the time. With the release of her new album, Shine, she dominated every chart we have. She's doing pretty well this week too, with 17 listeners placing her second to only George Strait, who had 20 listeners. That seems to be the only new album that's really grabbing 9513 fans. Rodney Atkins is #33…