‘Taking the Long Way’ lingers at No. 1

HOW quiet was it on the Western front last week, musically speaking?

No new album cracked the Top 100 of the national sales chart, but the Dixie Chicks held on to the No. 1 position by selling 271,000 more copies of the trio’s new “Taking the Long Way” album.

That brings the Chicks’ two-week total to just under 800,000, despite the cool reception country radio has shown the first two singles from the collection.

British soul singer James Blunt, on the other hand, got a major boost for his 8-month-old “Back to Bedlam” album after his May 29 appearance on the “Today” show. It jumped from No. 25 to No. 9 as sales rose 53% to 51,000 copies.

Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira also managed to buck the general sales slump, her “Oral Fixation, Vol. 2” jumping three slots to No. 10. The popularity of her latest single, “Hips Don’t Lie,” a duet with Wyclef Jean, contributed to a 7% sales increase to 51,000 copies.

Most other Top 10 albums had sales declines from the previous week. Disney’s “High School Musical” held on to the No. 2 slot after five months on the chart with sales of 103,000 copies, down 41% from a week earlier, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The highest debut is “Peeping Tom,” from the band of the same name started by Faith No More’s Mike Patton. It sold 10,000 copies to enter at No. 103.