Billy Strings’ ‘Highway Prayers’ Is First Bluegrass Set to Hit No. 1 on Top Album Sales Chart Since 2002

Billy Strings’ Highway Prayers arrives at No. 1 on Billboard’s all-genre Top Album Sales survey dated Oct. 12.

The set also launches at No. 1 on Bluegrass Albums, marking the first time that bluegrass has boasted the top-selling album among all genres in 22 years. The O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack spent two weeks at No. 1 on Top Album Sales in March 2002. It also ruled Bluegrass Albums for 15 weeks.

Highway Prayers, which includes 20 songs, sold 19,000 – Strings’ biggest career sales week – in the United States in its first week (Sept. 27-Oct. 3), according to Luminate.

The 32-year-old singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Lansing, Mich., now based in the Nashville area, leads Top Album Sales for the first time following three top 10s: Live, Vol. 1 entered at its No. 5 high on the chart dated July 27 with 15,000 sold; Me/And/Dad started at its No. 5 peak in December 2022 with 16,000 sold (his previous high mark); and Renewal began at its No. 7 best in October 2021 (8,000). He posted his initial appearance in October 2019 as Home entered at its No. 34 peak.

With Highway Prayers, Strings (born William Apostol) earns his fifth leader among eight top 10s on Bluegrass Albums.

Simultaneously, the LP — which Strings produced with Jon Brion — arrives at No. 8 Top Country Albums, awarding Strings his third top 10. The set starts with 24,000 equivalent album units, the largest consumption week of his career. The collection also opens at No. 6 on Americana/Folk Albums, marking his fourth top 10.

Currently on tour, Strings makes his next stop Oct. 11 in Indianapolis.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates to May 25, 1991, when Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units.

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