The Nelons Earn Their First Top 10 on Top Christian Albums Chart With ‘Loving You’
The Nelons’ Loving You arrives at No. 9 on Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart (dated Sept. 14), as the act reaches the top 10 in its first appearance on the ranking.
The 11-song set, released Aug. 30, earned 3,000 equivalent album units, almost entirely in album sales, in the United States in the week ending Sept. 5, according to Luminate.
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Unfortunately, the achievement follows tragic news. Nelons co-founder Kelly Nelon Clark, husband Jason Clark and Amber Nelon Kistler (Kelly’s daughter and Jason’s stepdaughter) were among seven people who died in a plane crash in northeast Wyoming in the afternoon of July 26. The only surviving member of the foursome is Autumn Nelon Streetman (also Kelly’s daughter and Jason’s stepdaughter), who was not on the flight.
The three members of the Georgia-based act were traveling to join the Gaither Homecoming Cruise to Alaska, according to its label, Gaither Music Group, the sponsor of the cruise.
“Thank you for the prayers that have been extended already to me, my husband, Jamie, and our soon-to-be-born baby boy, as well as Jason’s parents, Dan and Linda Clark,” Streetman shared in a statement. “We appreciate your continued prayers, love and support as we navigate the coming days.”
The Nelons launched in 1977 by founding member Rex Nelon as The Rex Nelon Singers. (He died in 2000.) They were inducted into the Gospel Music Association (GMA) Hall of Fame in 2016 and won 10 GMA Dove Awards, including multiple album and song of the year trophies.
Streetman, who is expecting a baby boy in December, sang “Family Chain” with The Isaacs to at the Nelons’ memorial service in Roopville, Ga., on Aug. 6. “People have asked me, ‘How did you get up there and sing at the funeral?’ And I told them, ‘This is what we do. We sing in good times and bad times,’” she told Billboard in August. “The Lord just gave me the strength to get up there and do it.”
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