Randy Houser photo courtesy of Universal Records South.

#6 on GAC’s Top Stories of 2009 |  View all »

When Randy Houser played a show in Nashville last January, he introduced his Top 20 release “Anything Goes” with a sarcastic tone that’s familiar to just about every new act in country music: “Seems like 87 weeks [it’s been on the singles chart], and I have to say, I’m happy to be movin’ on to another one.”

Most new artists can assume that if they get a hit — and that “if” is a very key word — it’s going to take 30 weeks or more for the song to reach its full peak. As an illustration, consider these six acts, all of whom earned their first Top 10 hits in 2009: David Nail, Chris Young, Gloriana, Love And Theft, Justin Moore and the sarcastic Randy Houser. Every one of their first-time Top 10 singles was released in January or February of 2009, and every one of them had to wait until about September for the single to finally reach its peak. That’s eight months of waiting and working and losing sleep just to call attention to one song that may, or may not, motivate fans to go out and buy a whole album or a concert ticket.

Fortunately for those acts, all of them did make some significant noise. Gloriana surprised pop fans by beating out Lady Gaga for the T-Mobile Breakthrough Artist of the Year trophy at the American Music Awards. Country Aircheck cited Randy as the top new artist of the year. And Billboard tabbed Justin for that same recognition.

All that work can pay off big-time. Darius Rucker, Lady Antebellum and the Zac Brown Band labored for the requisite 30 or 40 chart weeks for their first country hits in 2008, and all of them went platinum in the fall of 2009.

What new country act did you absolutely fall in love with in 2009?  Drop me a comment below and tell me who and why!

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