Jason Aldean's 'Wide Open' CD Achieves Gold in Record-Setting 10 Weeks

Posted by Lisa L. Rollins Jul 8, 2009

The critically acclaimed third album from country-rocker Jason Aldean, Wide Open, recently was been certified gold by the RIAA after sales of more than 500,000 copies in just 10 weeks--two weeks faster than Aldean's prior releases.

"Throughout his career Jason has been one of the top-selling artists that we distribute, but the strength of sales, both physical and digital from Wide Open have been nothing short of tremendous," noted RED Distribution President Bob Morelli in a recent press statement. "He has firmly cemented his place among country's biggest stars."

"It all comes down to great music and a lot of hard work and dedication by our entire team," added Broken Bow Records President Benny Brown. "We gave Jason and his producer, Michael Knox, the freedom to make the album Jason wanted to make, and they nailed it.

"Everyone who works on this project truly believes that Jason is the next superstar of our format, and that sort of passion is irreplaceable," Brown continued via a June 24, 2009, release. "We thank our friends at radio and retail, as well as Jason's family, band and crew, for being fantastic partners and helping us take his career to the next level."

One gander at the U.S. country charts indicates that the Georgia-born singer's latest single from Wide Open, "Big Green Tractor," continues to gain ground. It is, in fact, quickly becoming the singer's fastest-rising single to date and the follow-up to the former No. 1 dubbed "She's Country."

Aldean continues to sellout dates on his current areana tour in honor of Wide Open, where he--along with opening act Eric Durrance--set a new attendance record of 14,000-plus at the New Berlin, Ill., venue where they played. Those assocated with the tour tell this scribe tht only a week earlier, country trio Lady Antebellum had established the venue's attendance record with some 10.000 fans, only to have Aldean break said record in under a week.