When his second album was released last month, local boy Jason Michael Carroll had high hopes for its commercial reception. His first album had yielded two top-five country singles, made the top-10 of the Billboard 200 and sold about 400,000 copies. So he was thinking big.

"I'd love to have numbers like the first album, or even bigger," Carroll said. "It could happen. We've been out three years, developing a bigger fan base. So it'd be awesome to see it take off."

So far, however, "Growing Up Is Getting Old" is sputtering. After debuting at a respectable No. 28, the album has taken a nosedive down the charts -- a 97-spot plummet to an anemic No. 125 after just three weeks. Fortunately, the lead single "Where I'm From" is still climbing the country singles chart (up to No. 13 this week). But it's going to have to move a lot farther north to pull the album back up.

ADDENDUM (6/8/09): On the upside, Carroll did get to sing the national anthem at a Cubs game.