Southside debuts at No. 1 on Billboard Country Albums Chart
Sam Hunt’s sophomore album Southside races up to No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums Chart as the best country album debut of 2020 with sales tallying over 45,900. The album marks Hunt’s second consecutive debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart and second consecutive Top 5 debut on Billboard’s Top 200. Including album tracks “Drinkin’ Too Much,” “Dowtown’s Dead” and the record-breaking “Body Like A Back Road,” it brings the new album to over one million cumulative album equivalent units.
Hunt appears tonight (Mon, April 13th) on CBS’ Late Night with Stephen Colbert performing his latest Top 15 hit “Hard To Forget.” Including “Hard To Forget,” the tune NPR calls a “Song of the Summer-contending singalong,” Southside features 12 songs, all written by the multi-platinum-selling star.
The New York Times says Southside is “a reminder that Hunt is a Nashville provocateur who can write better songs than almost everyone he’s trying to provoke,” while Rolling Stone pegs Hunt as “an innovator who has remade country in his own image and also figured out how to reclaim its past.” Billboard notes, “his ace storytelling and ability to incorporate hip-hop influence into a more modernized form of country are still intact,” and Stereogum indicates, “Hunt’s formidable charisma and world-building ability” as the through lines of Southside. The album has also earned praise from American Songwriter, Associated Press, Entertainment Weekly, NPR and more.
Hunt offers fans the stories behind the album “that will get you choked up between sing-alongs” (Billboard) with an enhanced Southside album playlist on Spotify.
The Southside Summer Tour moves kickoff to July 10th in Bangor, Maine out of an abundance of caution for fans, crew and venue staff. Rescheduled dates include Toronto (Aug 26th), St. Louis (Sept 3rd), Milwaukee (Sept 4th), Detroit (Sept 5th), Mt. Pleasant, MI (Sept 6th), Charlotte (Oct 1st), Raleigh (Oct 2nd), Bristow, VA (Oct 3rd), West Palm Beach (Oct 8th), Tampa (Oct 9th) and Atlanta (Oct 10th).
