CHURCH SERVICE

The North Carolina-born country singer-songwriter’s third Capitol Nashville album, Chief, will debut on next week’s chart with that amount, which will make him #1 on the HITS sales chart.

Church’s two previous albums, 2006’s Sinners Like Me and 2009’s Carolina, both went Top 10 Country, while the latter reached #17 on the sales chart.

That’s based on one-day sales reports from those music retailers who haven’t paved paradise to put up a parking lot.

Universal Republic former Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland’s Here I Am, the follow-up to 2007’s Ms. Kelly, is looking at first-week sales in the 70-75k range.

Stone’d/Surfdog U.K. soul stirrer Joss Stone’s fifth album, LP1, her first since splitting EMI Music, should do between 25-28k.

Epitaph’s Falling In Reverse is the new band from former Escape The Fate vocalist Ronnie Radke, with their debut, The Drug in Me is You, looking to sell between 17-20k

The market was flat vs. last week, up 6% vs. same week last year and still up 1% year to date, while TEA (track equivalent album) sales are up 4% year to date. That’s right, folks, flat is the new up.