This week: A fresh #1, two former chart-toppers returning, and an unusually busy debut week — eight new songs entering the Top 20.
We also heard four picks from the BluegrassToday Gospel and Grassicana charts during our mid-show feature.

🔥 New #1 This Week

Blue Highway – Is Now the Time
Written by Wayne Taylor & Beth Snapp • Down The Road Records
Up from #2 last week.

📥 Eight Debuts

Artists who had songs entering the chart this week:
Bryan Sutton & Sierra Hull,
Alison Brown and Steve Martin,
Burnett Sisters Band
David Parmley,
The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys

🎧 Mid-Show Feature — Songs from Other BluegrassToday Charts
• Burnett Sisters Band – Lovesick Blues — #2 Grassicana
• Eighteen Mile – What Mercy Means — #3 Gospel
• Jeff Tolbert & Primitive Road – Heaven Is Waiting For Me — #4 Gospel
• Russ Carson – Father, Son & Holy Ghost — #4 Gospel (tied)

Welcome to this week’s BluegrassToday Weekly Top 20 Countdown, produced in Sydney, Australia, where we bring you the 20 most-played songs in bluegrass radio worldwide — as published each Friday night on BluegrassToday.com.

This week’s chart gives us strong climbers, powerful debuts, returning favourites, and a familiar face back at number one.

This Week’s Number 1

Congratulations to Trey Hensley — and to Pinecastle Records — as Can’t Outrun the Blues takes the #1 spot for the second week in a row, after spending two weeks at #2 earlier in its chart run.

Highlights From the Countdown

• Chosen Road arrive with a thoughtful debut at #7.
  
  
• Pitney Meyer return to the chart after 27 weeks away, landing at #6 with Trail of Tears.
  
  
• Benson keep their momentum with Bully of the Town holding strong at #3.
  
  
• Blue Highway’s Is Now the Time* continues climbing — now at #2 and possibly eyeing next week’s top spot.
  
  
• Alison Krauss & Union Station surge from #20 to #12 with Richmond on the James, a song that’s twice been to #1 earlier in its run and will celebrate six months on the countdown next week. (And yes — that’s Richmond, Virginia, on the James River… not the one just 10km up the road from Windsor!)
  
  

About the Countdown

Every song you hear on the program has earned its place through radio airplay around the world. The Countdown is compiled from bluegrass radio reporting and reflects what broadcasters everywhere are spinning week after week.

Thanks for Listening

Thank you for supporting bluegrass music — and for joining us for another week of the BluegrassToday Weekly Top 20 Countdown.
We’ll be back next week with all the new movement, new debuts, and maybe a new #1.

This week on the BluegrassToday Weekly Top 20 Countdown, I’m joined by one of the most respected broadcasters in bluegrass, Cindy Baucom, host of Knee Deep in Bluegrass and longtime MC of the main stage at MerleFest. Cindy brings her trademark warmth, insight, and good humour as we work our way through a busy chart:
one brand-new Number One, five debuts, and seven returning songs.

We talk about the artists, the songs, and a few personal stories along the way. Cindy shares some behind-the-scenes knowledge only she can offer, and we compare notes on life, broadcasting, and the bluegrass world today.

Because of podcast time constraints, some parts of our conversation had to be omitted from this public version — including a couple of extra stories and “Cindy picks” that didn’t quite fit the broadcast clock.
You can hear those extended segments on our Patreon page at:
👉 http://patreon.com/bttop20

If you enjoy the show, consider supporting us there — it helps keep the countdown going and gives you access to bonus audio, behind-the-scenes notes, and extra content from our guests.

Broadcast from Sydney, Australia.
Thanks for listening, and enjoy the music!