Jessi Alexander, Ashley Gorley Take Home Top Honors During NMPA Gold & Platinum Gala

Many in Nashville’s elite country music songwriting community were honored at the Country Music Hall of Fame on Thursday evening (Oct. 24), as the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) held its 2024 Gold and Platinum Gala, honoring many of the songwriters behind several RIAA-certified singles within the 2023-2024 eligibility period.

Prior to the beginning of the ceremony, guests and honorees mingled during a reception, noshing on hors d’oeuvres. NMPA president/CEO David Israelite ushered in the evening in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s sixth-floor reception space overlooking downtown Nashville, calling the certifications the “most definite measurement of songwriters’ success.”

The evening feted nearly 120 multi-platinum honoree songwriters from Nashville’s songwriting community, with over 150 gold, platinum and multi-platinum-certified writers in attendance. Ninety-one songs were honored that have earned double-platinum or higher certification for the eligibility period.

Uniquely, the evening’s honored songs spanned decades, feting new certifications for Toby Keith’s 1990s signature hit “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” while other honored songs, such as Shaboozey’s “A Bar song (Tipsy),” were released only months ago.

Israelite also recognized the essential advocacy work and support of the RIAA’s chair/CEO Mitch Glazier and Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) executive director Bart Herbison in making the evening honoring songwriters possible.

Bailey Zimmerman brought his joyous energy to the stage, recalling a bit of his songwriting process, and how he merged the chorus from one song idea with the verse of another idea to form one of his breakthrough hits, his 4x platinum “Fall in Love.” “Show up every day and keep writing songs because you never know which will be the one,” Zimmerman said, before also performing “Rock and A Hard Place.”

“My first-ever platinum record, y’all!” singer-songwriter Hailey Whitters said earlier in the evening, before performing her RIAA platinum-certified song “Everything She Ain’t.”

Breland performed his Gold-certified “For What It’s Worth,” turning in one of the best vocals of the night. He followed with his new song “Same Work,” from his new album 2024 Project.

Throughout the evening, NMPA Exec. VP and general counsel Danielle Aguirre recognized those writers celebrating 2x platinum-certified songs, while NMPA senior vp, external affairs Charlotte Sellmyer revealed more multi-platinum songs.

Later in the evening, the late Country Music Hall of Famer Toby Keith’s longtime manager TK Kimbrell accepted on behalf of the late Keith, for Keith’s 3x platinum-honored “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” and the 2x platinum “How Do You Like Me Now?!,” while Keith’s longtime song collaborator Scotty Emerick accepted for songs including the 3x platinum “As Good As I Once Was,” and the 2x platinum “Beer For My Horses,” and “I Love This Bar.”

Also celebrated was late songwriter Kyle Jacobs, for his work in crafting the 5x multi-platinum song “Rumor.” Jacobs’s parents Reed and Sheri Jacobs accepted the honor on his behalf, and drew a standing ovation from the crowd of Nashville music publishers and songwriters, many of whom have collaborated with Jacobs over the years.

The male songwriter of the year accolade went to Ashley Gorley. Notably, the prolific Gorley beat singer-songwriter Zach Bryan to win the NMPA honor by a single song certification this year.

Israelite called Gorley a “primary crafter of today’s country sound and why it’s reached unprecedented crossover appeal.” Gorley briefly thanked his co-writers, as well as publishers at Sony Music Publishing, and his Tape Room Music colleagues, saying simply and earnestly, “Thank you for this.”

The female songwriter of the year honor was awarded to Jessi Alexander, for her work on songs including Luke Combs’s “5 Leaf Clover,” Little Big Town’s “You, Me and Whiskey” and Morgan Wallen’s “The Way I Talk.”

“I thought I’d work at Subway forever, but thank you for giving me my dream job, which is writing songs,” Alexander said, before thanking her husband, songwriter Jon Randall, as well as her publishers, including Warner Chappell Music Nashville’s president/CEO Ben Vaughn and vice president, A&R and digital Jessi Vaughn Stevenson.

The evening closed with Israelite introducing Jordan Davis, who performed his double platinum-certified “Next Thing You Know” and the 4x platinum-certified “Buy Dirt.” “I always say this song was written about the three most important things in my life: my faith in Jesus, my wife, my kids-my family-and my friends,” Davis said of “Buy Dirt.”

Addressing the songwriters, publishers and other industry members in the room, Davis added, “Thank you for what you do day in and day out. I’m grateful to be in Nashville, Tennessee and get to be a songwriter alongside all of y’all.”

See the full list of the honored songwriters and songs below:

Double-platinum songs:
Chase McGill and Jaren Johnston for “5 Foot 9”
Blake Pendergrass for “865”
Danny Orton for “19 You + Me”
Jerrell Jones and Mark Williams for “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Brandon Kinney and Josh Thompson for “Ain’t Always the Cowboy”
Carson Chamberlain and Wade Kirby for “All Over The Road”
Hillary Lindsey and Jordan Davis for “Almost Maybes”
Chris DeStefano for “Aw Naw”
Chris Lane and Jacob Durrett for “Big, Big Plans”
Drew Parker for “Doin’ This”
Luke Laird for “Down To The Honkytonk”
Ben Burgess and Mark Holman for “Flower Shops”
Ben Johnson for “Give Heaven Some Hell”
Barry Dean for “Heartache Medication”
Jonathan Singleton for “Houston, We Got A Problem”
Brett Jones and Rob Hatch for If “Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away”
Chris DeStefano and Josh Hoge for “Losing Sleep”
Billy Montana and Brian Davis for “Memory I Don’t Mess With”
Daniel Breland, Devon Barton, Edrick Miles, Kalvin Austin, Tatiana Zeigler and Troy Taylor for “My Truck”
Chase McGill, Greylan James and Jordan Davis for “Next Thing You Know”
Chris DeStefano for “Nothin’ Like You”
Brett James and Tony Lane for “On My Way to You”
Jared Keim and Ryan Beaver for “Pretty Little Poison”
Alexander Palmer, Austin Shawn, Bailey Zimmerman, Frank Romano and Marty James for “Religiously”
Josh Kerr for “She Likes It”
Sergio Sanchez for “Spin You Around”
Ben Williams, David Fanning and Paul Jenkins for “Tennessee Orange”
Gary Hannan for “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off”
Andy Albert, Dustin Lynch and Will Weatherly for “Thinking ‘Bout You”
Jordan Schmidt and Renee Blair for “wait in the truck”
Jordan Davis and Ryan Hurd for “What My World Spins Around”
Lindsay Rimes for “Whiskey on You”
Paul Jenkins for “Who I Am With You”
Tofer Brown for “Wine, Beer, Whiskey”

3x platinum songs:
Johnny Bulford, Jon Stone and Phil Barton for ‘A Woman Like You”
Jordan Reynolds and Nicolle Galyon for “All To Myself”
Wayne Kirkpatrick for “Boondocks”
Dave Barnes and Julian Bunetta for “Craving You”
Eric Paslay for “Even If It Breaks Your Heart”
Chris DeStefano for “From the Ground Up”
Brock Berryhill, Shy Carter, Taylor Phillips and Will Weatherly for “Good As You”
Brock Berryhill, Matt McGinn and Taylor Phillips for “Homesick”
Chase McGill and Will Weatherly for “Lose It”
Billy Montana and Tofer Brown for “Night Shift”
Hillary Lindsey and Jake Mitchell for “One Beer”
Brad Warren, Brett Warren and Jim Beavers for “Red Solo Cup”
Mark Sanders and Tim Nichols for “She Had Me At Heads Carolina”
Jacob Durrett for “Somebody’s Problem”
Christian Stalnecker and Josh Hoge for “Thank God”
Dan Isbell, Reid Isbell and Jamie Davis for “The Kind of Love We Make”
Ben Hayslip, Chase McGill and Jessi Alexander for “The Way I Talk”
Charlie Handsome and Taylor Phillips for “Thinkin’ Bout Me”
Anthony Smith for “Tomorrow”
Brian White, Rodney Atkins and Steve Dean for “Watching You”

4x platinum songs:
Jacob Davis, Jordan Davis and Joshua Jenkins for “Buy Dirt”
Austin Shawn, Bailey Zimmerman and Gavin Lucas for “Fall In Love”
Rachel Thibodeau for “Good Directions”
Bart Butler for “Heartache On The Dancefloor”
Ben Hayslip and Rhett Akins for “Huntin’, Fishin’, and Lovin’ Every Day”
Corey Crowder and Josh Hoge for “I’m Comin’ Over”
Jason Matthews and Marty Dodson and for “Must Be Doin’ Somethin’ Right”
Ben Johnson for “One Of Them Girls”
Nicolle Galyon for “Thought You Should Know”
Charlie Handsome for “You Proof”

5x platinum songs:
Ben Glover, Billy Montana and John Ozier for “Hard to Love”
Sammy Mitchell and Steven Battey for “One Number Away”
Heath Warren and Jet Harvey for “Rock and a Hard Place”
Kyle Jacobs for “Rumor”
Brad Clawson for “Up Down”

6x platinum songs:
Jonathan Singleton for “Beer Never Broke My Heart”
Jamie Moore for “Chasin’ You”
Joshua Jenkins and Shane Stevens for “Fancy Like”
Charlie Handsome for “More Than My Hometown”

7x platinum songs:
Charlie Handsome and Ryan Hurd for “Heartless”
Charlie Handsome for “Last Night”
Channing Wilson and Rob Snyder for “She Got The Best of Me”
Jordan Reynolds and Laura Veltz for “Speechless”

8x platinum song:
Charlie Handsome and Josh Thompson for “Wasted On You”

9x platinum songs:
Taylor Phillips and Thomas Archer for “Hurricane”
Jordan Schmidt and Matthew McGinn for “What Ifs”
Ben Burgess and Kevin Kadish for “Whiskey Glasses”

10x platinum songs:
Lindsay Rimes, Matthew McGinn and Shy Carter for “Platinum Heaven”
Trent Tomlinson and Tyler Reeve for “In Case You Didn’t Know”

12x platinum Song:
Charles Kelley for “Need You Now”