Album Sweep: August 3, 2013 - Part Two...

I'm back with round two of this week's "album sweep" sampling the records making their first appearance on the Top 200 Albums sales chart in Billboard magazine. You can check out part one by clicking here, and as before I've included links to buy anything you see.

Coming in at #47 is husband and wife religious musical team of Kim Walker-Smith and Skyler Smith from the collective Jesus Culture, with their bluegrass-ish Home. It's their first album together apart from the group...

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 An odd entry on the chart is the Change Your Mind: Music For Brainwave Entrainment, by Dr. Mitch Gaynor and keyboardist Jon Regen at #67, but it's a result of their appearance on the Dr. Oz show. It's a five-track EP that's full of ambient music meant for healing- there's no soundbite from it. So yeah.

Dixie Chicks side-project Court Yard Hounds, made of sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire, made the top-10 with their self-titled debut album. Their second effort Amelita arrives at #70...

Boston hardcore band Defeaters enter at #72 with their third full-length, Letters Home...

Miami hiphop group Mayday! come in at #75 with Believers....

JJ Lawhorn, on the "trailer country" label Average Joe's Entertainment (home of Colt Ford and the like), debuts at #91 with Original Good Ol' Boy: OGOB...

Mexican-American singer Roberto Tapia is in at #105 with Lo Mejor De Roberto Tapia....

The TV animated fantasy series The Legend Of Korra on Nickelodeon have proven to be a big success, and the accompanying soundtrack to "Book One", composed by Jeremy Zuckerman and Benjamin Wynn, comes on to the chart at #110. It's very good background listening, with elements of Eastern Asian music and flapper-style jazz...

Tig Notaro is not only one of the best stand-up comedians (her Taylor Dayne bit is flawless), but the bravest - her show where she went off about her diagnosis with cancer along with her break-up was both epically tearjerking and cathartic at the same time. Her Live EP arrives at #131. Originally offered online by Louis C.K., the classic set from that Los Angeles show is now in wide release...

 Gospel-Funk rock group Robert Randolph and The Family Band jumps in at #135 with their new set Lickety Split. Their two last studio sets, We Walk This Road and Colorblind, reached the top half of the chart...


The second husband and wife team releasing a spiritual album this week is country singers Joey + Rory are back with Joey + Rory Inspired: Songs of Faith & Family at #166. So far their second album, Album Number Two, has gone the highest at #60 in 2010...


Another comedy release, Maria Bamford's Ask Me About My New God!, arrives at #188...

 The last debut of the week is the first album from Christian rock band Everfound, who emigrated from Russia to Denver, and released their first self-titled record at #195...

That's for the second half of the new crop - out of these bakers dozen the three I'd recommend first are the Tig Notaro, Court Yard Hounds, and Robert Randolph sets.....