Chris Stapleton‘s CMA Awards sweep last week resulted in a huge sales jump of his debut album, the CMA Album of the Year, Traveller. The project tops the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, holding off Carrie Underwood‘s new Storyteller CD and Eric Church‘s new surprise album, Mr. Misunderstood.
On the heels of Chris’ win for New Artist and Male Vocalist, not to mention that electrifying performance with Justin Timberlake, Traveller sold 177,000 total albums, 153,000 of which were pure album sales. The other sales make up downloads of “Tennessee Whiskey” and other Traveller singles.
Billboard reports that Traveller sold more copies in the three days following the CMA Awards than it had in the six months since it was released in May. When the album was originally released, it peaked at Number 14 with 27,000 copies before completely falling out of the Billboard 200.
Chris tells us that Traveller spans several years back. 
“It’s a collection of songs that’s as old as my songwriting career is, so it’s probably 12 or 13 years worth of songs. The song ‘Traveller’ itself came when I was driving through the desert in an old jeep, and I was thinking a lot about life and how we’re all just kind of passing through it. It’s more about that than an actual physical journey, I think.”
Carrie Underwood’s Storyteller holds the Number Two spot this week for the second week in a row, while Eric Church’s Mr. Misunderstood debuted at Number Three with 76,000 total copies.
SIDE NOTES
- Eric’s Mr. Misunderstood was released to his fan club on November 4th, the day of the CMAs. It hit retail the next day.
- Eric’s 2014 album, The Outsiders, debuted at Number One with first-week sales of 288,000 copies.
