Americana/Folk Albums (formerly Folk Albums) is a music chart published weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks the top selling "current releases by traditional folk artists, as well as appropriate titles by acoustic-based singer-songwriters" in the United States. The chart debuted on the issue dated December 5, 2009, as a 15-position chart with its first number-one title being the Bob Dylan Christmas album Christmas in the Heart.
It has since expanded to a 25-position chart. In May 2016, Billboard renamed the chart to "Americana/Folk Albums", with the increasing popularity of Americana music, giving more recognition to acts which lean more towards Americana than folk.
Over the chart's fourteen-year history Bob Dylan holds the record for the most number-one albums with eight. Chris Stapleton has spent 190 weeks at the chart's peak with his five number-one albums, including the longest-running number-one in the chart's history Traveller.
On the year-end Billboard charts, Sigh No More by Mumford & Sons was the best performing album of 2010 and 2011, Babel by Mumford & Sons was the best performing album of 2012 and 2013, All the Little Lights by Passenger was the best performing album of 2014, Hozier by Hozier was the best performing album of 2015, and Traveller by Chris Stapleton was the best performing album of 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022.
Folk/Americana chart achievements Albums with most weeks at number one
Weeks Album Artist Year(s) Source 131 Traveller Chris Stapleton 2016–2022 79 Stick Season Noah Kahan 2023–2026 66 Sigh No More Mumford & Sons 2010–2012 61 American Heartbreak Zach Bryan 2022–2023 36 Starting Over Chris Stapleton 2021–2022 32 Babel Mumford & Sons 2012–2013 21 Hozier Hozier 2014–2015 20 The Great Divide Noah Kahan 2026 19 Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Going Shaboozey 2024–2025 18 The Lumineers The Lumineers 2012–2013
Artists with most cumulative weeks at number-one Weeks atnumber one Artist Ref. 190 Chris Stapleton 105 Mumford & Sons 99 Noah Kahan 87 Zach Bryan 26 Hozier 23 The Lumineers 19 Shaboozey 16 Passenger 15 Bob Dylan 15 She & Him
Artists with the most number-one albums Numberof albums Artist ref 8 Bob Dylan 6 Brandi Carlile 5 Chris Stapleton 5 John Mayer 5 Sturgill Simpson 5 Mumford & Sons 4 The Lumineers 4 Zach Bryan 3 Lord Huron 3 Bon Iver 3 Tyler Childers
See also List of Billboard number-one Americana/folk albums of the 2010s List of Billboard number-one Americana/folk albums of the 2020s
References