Good friends and songwriting partners Dallas Davidson and Rhett Akins share this year's BMI country songwriter and song of the year awards.
Many of country music's top stars were on hand to celebrate songwriters, including Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood and Blake Shelton, on Tuesday night at the BMI Country Awards.
Davidson and Akins each had five of the year's most-performed songs. The Georgia natives, also part of a songwriting trio called The Peach Pickers, collaborated on four of those hits, including song of the year "All Over Me," a No. 1 for Josh Turner. They also wrote hits for Shelton, Joe Nichols, Luke Bryan and Rodney Atkins.
BMI, the performing rights organization, also saluted songwriter Bobby Braddock. The writer of classics "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," two of country's most important songs, was named a BMI Icon.
Shelton, who Braddock discovered and produced early in his career, his wife Miranda Lambert's group Pistol Annies, Vince Gill and LeAnn Rimes sang his songs in tribute.
The 71-year-old Braddock has had quite the year. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this spring and has spent a lot of time walking red carpets, something the usually private Braddock has found unsettling.
"I wouldn't say private as much as I'm a hermit," Braddock joked before the ceremony. "Being in a crowd scares the daylights out of me. But I can do an impersonation of an extrovert. It's fakery, though."
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