Ashley Gorley is always the odds-on favorite to win the songwriter of the year award at the ASCAP Country Music Awards. With the wind of a healthy amount of fresh Morgan Wallen tracks at his back, he was again shooed in for the top honor as the winners were announced Monday night in Nashville. His streak is, as of 2023, now at 10 wins, the most any ASCAP country songwriter has ever achieved.
He also picked up the award for country song of the year — only the third time he’s won that particular honor. The win came for the Wallen smash “You Proof.”
In all, Gorley had a hand in writing 10 songs that were named as being among ASCAP’s most performed for the past year. Five of those were Wallen tracks; besides “You Proof,” he picked up additional kudos for “Last Night,” “Everything I Love,” ”One Thing at a Time,” and “Thinkin’ Bout Me.” The other five cuts that contributed to his winning songwriter of the year were “Gold” (recorded by Dierks Bentley), “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” (Cole Swindell), “What He Didn’t Do” (Carly Pearce), “Girl in Mine” (Parmalee) and “You Didn’t” (Brett Young).
Another big winner was hitmaker Jordan Davis, who won artist/songwriter of the year for the first time, an award given to singers who maintain a strong hand in co-writing their own material. Davis had two songs, “Next Thing You Know” and “What My World Spins Around,” among the past year’s most-performed.
Sony Music Publishing got the award as ASCAP Country Music Publisher of the Year, with 21 of the year’s most-played songs being affiliated with Sony, including “Heart Like a Truck” (a hit for Lainey Wilson), “Need a Favor” (recorded by Jelly Roll) and Davis’ “Next Thing You Know.”
Rather than the formal ceremony of days of yore, the winners were celebrated at an event at Nashville’s Twelve Thirty Club.
The full list of winners can be found here.
As always, the ASCAP Awards event was held two nights prior to the CMA Awards, which take place Wednesday night at Bridgestone Arena.
