The Band Perry ‘Pioneer’ Album Blazes Trail to No. 1!

Pioneer, the sophomore effort from the Band Perry, is the week's top-selling country album and also scores a No. 2 debut on the Billboard 200. In 2010, the sibling trio's self-titled release peaked at No. 2 on the country survey and reached No. 4 on the multi-genre Billboard 200. More significantly, perhaps, Pioneer's sales put the disc within reach (by some 10,000 copies) of outselling the No. 1 pop album of the week, Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience, having registered sales of 129,291 copies.

"From the very beginning of doing music, we had always heard about the sophomore slump, or the second album jitters," Reid Perry tells The Boot. "So we were aware of it, but a lot of the nerves and the responsibility we felt was more from the fact that we were just honored to be able to record a second album and just wanting to raise the bar for ourselves."

"Since we were kids and Neil was still in Superman pajamas, we wanted to learn everything we could about the music business," adds lead singer Kimberly Perry. "So that phrase 'sophomore slump,' it was like a horror film in our household! So, I think even before we finished recording our first album, we were already talking about ... how are we going to not be one-hit wonders, how are we going to up the ante from this first record?"

On the Top Country Digital Singles chart, Pioneer's current single, "DONE.," leaps from No. 20 to No. 7, increasing its sales from the previous week by 178 percent. The No. 1 digital track this week is Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise," already a double-platinum seller. Darius Rucker drops out of the top spot with "Wagon Wheel," while Blake Shelton, who had the No. 1 album last week (Based on a True Story ..., now No. 2), also drops a single notch to No. 3 on the singles chart with "Sure Be Cool If You Did."

Blake moves up from 7 to 6 with the new single, "Boys 'Round Here," which opened the ACM Awards telecast Sunday night and is likely to experience another spike in sales thanks to the show. Expect Brad Paisley's Wheelhouse, released this week, to make a strong debut on next week's charts.