WEEK IN PREVIEW: IN AWE
OF TOBY KEITH

Right now 600,000 red-blooded Americans are screaming “Yee-haw!” and singing along to the new record from DreamWorks Nashville’s Toby Keith. That’s right, it looks like Shock’n Y’all is on track to move 600,000.

And Keith isn’t the only thing rednecks are celebrating: Arista chanteuse Sarah McLachlan has returned with a vengeance, looking like it could sell 330k-plus in its debut week. Whattayamean rednecks don’t love McLachlan?

Just behind McLachlan will be Now Vol. 14, handled by Columbia this time out, which could do 300k. The best of from Sheryl Crow (A&M) is looking like it will do over 200k. Also debuting this week are Murder Inc./IDJ’s Ja Rule, which is headed for 150k, and a live DVD/CD from Capitol’s Coldplay and Atlantic’s P.O.D., both of which are headed for sales of 100k.

Get a glass of water, you’re going to need your fluids because this week’s releases both big and screwy. New records drop tomorrow from Tupac (Amaru/Interscope), Pink (Arista), Kid Rock (Atlantic), and Josh Groban (Warner Bros.) Then on Friday, G-Unit (G-Unit/Shady/Aftermath/Interscope) and Jay-Z (Roc-a-Fella/IDJ) street. Those discs’ streetdates have been moved up because of bootlegs. Yee-haw!