See All 2008 Award-Winning Songs

Casey Beathard earned his second BMI Country Songwriter of the Year crown, while Taylor Swift’s smash “Teardrops on My Guitar” garnered Robert J. Burton Song of the Year honors. Publishing powerhouse Sony/ATV Music Publishing Nashville claimed its seventh consecutive Country Publisher of the Year title, and an all-star tribute recognized Hank Williams, Jr. as a BMI Icon.

First named BMI Country Songwriter of the Year in 2004, Casey Beathard co-wrote five of the songs in the most-performed list to claim his 2008 Songwriter of the Year title: Rodney Atkins’ “Cleaning This Gun (Come On In Boy),” Kenny Chesney’s “Don’t Blink,” George Strait’s “How ’Bout Them Cowgirls,” Billy Ray Cyrus and Miley Cyrus’s “Ready, Set, Don’t Go” and Tracy Lawrence’s “Find Out Who Your Friends Are,” featuring Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw

Song of the Year “Teardrops on My Guitar” was co-written and recorded by Taylor Swift and published by Sony/ATV Tree. The song earned iTunes’ no. 1 country song of 2007 bragging rights as it achieved RIAA Digital Platinum certification in early 2008. The second single off her triple-platinum selling eponymous debut, “Teardrops on My Guitar” ushered in the year of Taylor Swift, during which the 18 year-old proceeded to shatter records, becoming the only female artist in Billboard country chart history to release five consecutive top ten singles from a debut album.

With 15 songs among this year’s top 50, Sony/ATV Music Publishing Nashville (through its companies Sony/ATV Acuff Rose, Sony/ATV Melody and Sony/ATV Tree) picked up its seventh consecutive BMI Country Publisher of the Year win. The publishing giant accumulated the highest percentage of copyright ownership thanks to award songs including “Never Wanted Nothing More,” “Famous In a Small Town,” “Watching Airplanes,” “Long Trip Alone” and “Love You.”

The capstone of the evening took the form of the tribute to newly crowned BMI Icon Hank Williams, Jr., featuring performances by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Gregg Allman, Robert Randolph and Kenny Chesney. Hank Williams, Jr.’s career has profiled the aspirations, trials and carousals of the everyman in an unabashedly proud and instantly recognizable voice. Nicknamed “Bocephus” by his legendary father Hank Williams, the younger Williams’s waggish songs and roguish persona have unified through their celebration of rebellion. A sly songwriter and robust vocalist capable of conveying startling emotion and making deceptively ordinary characters shine, he boasts a catalog that includes honky-tonk classics “All My Rowdy Friends,” “A Country Boy Can Survive,” “Born to Boogie,” “Dixie On My Mind,” “Family Tradition,” “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound” and “Texas Women.” Each composition represents a candid piece of Williams himself: He wrote every song on that list alone. In addition to 10 no. 1 singles, he found mainstream success on the pop charts and through penning and performing the multiple Emmy award-winning theme to Monday Night Football; six of Williams’s albums reached platinum status, while 20 were certified gold and 13 reached the number 1 spot on the charts.

The 2008 BMI Country Awards also honored hit songwriters Brett Beavers, Shane Minor, Rodney Clawson, Marv Green, Ed Hill and David Lee, along with recording artists/songwriters Luke Bryan, Sugarland’s Kristian Bush, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban, who each contributed two songs to the top 50 list.

Publishers Universal Music Publishing Group, EMI-Blackwood Music, Inc., Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp., Songs of Windswept Pacific and State One Music America each took home three or more awards.

“Don’t Blink” marked yet another No. 1 hit for 2007 BMI Country Publisher of the Year Sony ATV. Pictured are (l to r): BMI’s Jody Williams, Casey Beathard and Sony ATV’s Troy Tomlinson.

“BMI’s Jody Williams (right) welcomed songwriter Casey Beathard (left) to the party.

“Don’t Blink” co-writer Chris Wallin drew warm applause.

BMI songwriter Casey Beathard grinned as he shared the story behind his most recent No. 1.

Pictured at the late afternoon bash are (l to r): BMI’s Jody Williams, co-writer Chris Wallin, BMI songwriter Casey Beathard, producer Buddy Cannon and Sony ATV’s Troy Tomlinson.

Photos by John Russell

Things can’t get much brighter for 14-year-old Miley Cyrus, whose alter ego “Hannah Montana” on the like-named Disney Channel series has propelled her to the top of the pop heap.

Or can they? Disney released a Hannah Montana clothing collection in late summer, with the singer/actress helping to design some of the pieces. And, inevitably perhaps, there’s a theatrical film in the works, being produced by her TV co-star and father, Billy Ray Cyrus — yes, he of “Achy-Breaky Heart” fame.

With her second album, Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus (Walt Disney/Hollywood) splitting the difference between songs from her show and several new tunes co-written by Cyrus herself, she believes she’s both pleasing her TV fans and establishing her own identity.

“Oh, I’m so stoked, I’m so excited,” she says about the record. “It’s kind of like a ‘Meet Miley’ album. It’s introducing them to me, which is cool.

“I get on my own thing: a little country and then pop and rock and some bluegrass,” she adds. “And I play a lot of guitar on it. The music style is very Kelly Clarkson.”

It should come as no surprise that she got her start early. “I was singing on the stage with my dad when I was two,” she says. “I would sing ‘Hound Dog’ and silly songs for the fun of it.”

In fact, the younger Cyrus really was, to use the old cliché, practically a born performer.

“When I was little, I would stand up on couches and say, ‘Watch me’,” she recalls. “We had these showers that are completely glass, and I would lock people in them and make them stay in there and watch me perform. I’d make them watch.”

Such determination was obvious to Disney when Cyrus beat out some 1,000 other girls to land the Hannah role. “We decided we would not go through with this series until we found a kid who could carry a sitcom as well as she could carry a tune,” says Gary Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channel Worldwide.

Miley “has the everyday relatability of Hilary Duff and the stage presence of Shania Twain,” Marsh adds, “and that’s an explosive combination.”

As her empire continues to expand, Cyrus remains sanguine about staying on top on both the music and acting sides. “I’ve always loved singing, and I’ve always loved acting and dancing,” she says. Which does she prefer? “It depends because acting is so cool, like being on set and that kind of thing. But singing is a better way to be yourself, so I can’t choose.”

At this rate, she won’t have to.