Country Music Herald

The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) held it’s 45th Annual Country Music Awards on Monday night at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. It was a night full of great performances and honored some of the unsung heroes of country music–the songwriters. While the performing artists often get the kudos and credit for their songs, it is the songwriters who really keep country music going.

The evening started off with a Charlie Daniels and Gretchen Wilson duet of “Jackson” originally recorded on that very stage in Ryman Auditorium by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. The top five songs of the year then each had their turn to be performed on stage by the original songwriters. The first song was “Give it Away”, made a hit by George Strait, sung at the ceremony by writers Buddy Cannon, Jamey Johnson, and Bill Anderson. The house came down with Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins’ rendition of “Before He Cheats”, the Carrie Underwood cross-over smash hit. Brad Paisley, ever the inventive and funny entertainer, took the stage with song writing partners Kelly Lovelace and Lee Thomas to sing “The World”. All three were dressed in Paisley’s usual attire and played guitars just like Brad Paisley. The trio were in sync for the entire performance in their “Brad-ness”.

Kenny Rogers was then honored with a Golden Note award for lifetime achievement. His songwriters came out and performed some of his greatest hits, including “Sweet Music Man” (performed by Todd Brabec), “Just Dropped In” (by Rivers Rutherford), and “The Gambler” which was performed by Don Schlitz, recipient of the career achievement trophy. Rogers took the stage to sing “The Greatest” which is another song written by Schlitz.

The final two songs of the evening were then performed. Craig Wiseman sang the Kenny Chesney song “Summertime”, and writers Dave Berg and Georgia Middleman performed Rodney Atkins’ “If You’re Going Through Hell”. After those performances, the winners were announced. John Rich took home the prize for Best Songwriter-Artist and Craig Wiseman got accolades for Best Songwriter. The song of the year was actually a tie between “Before He Cheats” and “If You’re Going Through Hell”. Sony/ATV Publishing took the honors in the Publisher of the Year catagory.

You can see all of the other winners and most played songs of 2007 over at CMT.com.

country music, Country music awards, ASCAP country music awards, Kenny Rogers, John Rich, Craig Wiseman