Things got kind of shaken up again this week on the Billboard magazine blues chart for the week ending December 10, 2011. Gary Clark, Jr. finally rode his Rolling Stone magazine-fueled chart status into the sunset, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Joe Bonamassa jumped back on the train, and the great Etta James showed the youngsters how it's done.
The most startling upset of the week is James outselling herself - James' new album The Dreamer was knocked down a spot by the upwards trajectory of her Icon greatest hits collection, which jumped to number three. James' Icon collection was helped, no doubt, by K-Mart's "Black Friday" sale of the entire Icon album series for $5 a disc. Christmas sales probably also helped push Shepherd's How I Go and Bonamassa's Dust Bowl albums back onto the chart.
Bubbling under the Top Ten at a healthy number fifteen is Eric Clapton's Blues box set. The five-album vinyl set, collecting three of the guitarist's best blues-oriented efforts, was released in late-November and moved a bunch of copies this week at $125+ a shot. Here are this week's Top Ten blues albums, ranked by sales:
10. Kenny Wayne Shepherd - How I Go (Roadrunner Records)
9. Joe Bonamassa - Dust Bowl (J&R Adventures)
8. Johnny Winter - Roots (Megaforce Records)
7. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Playlist: The Very Best Of (Sony Legacy)
6. Etta James - The Dreamer (Verve Forecast)
5. Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa - Don't Explain (J&R Adventures)
4. Tedeschi Trucks Band - Revelator (Sony Masterworks)
3. Etta James - Icon (Geffen Records)
2. Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton - Play The Blues (Warner Brothers)
1. Hugh Laurie - Let Them Talk (Warner Brothers)
Photo of Eric Clapton's Blues courtesy Reprise Records
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