Luke Laird Takes Home Top Honors at BMI Country Awards

Posted by Megan Hagedorn on 11/05/2012
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Luke Laird went home with top honors at the 60th annual BMI Country Awards, held last Tuesday night, Oct. 30, in Nashville, TN. The prolific writer shared BMI Country Songwriter of the Year honors with Dallas Davidson, while “Take a Back Road,” written by Laird and Rhett Akins, was named BMI Country Song of the Year.
 
Laird earned the prestigious Songwriter of the Year title thanks to writing five songs that ranked among the 50 most-performed country songs in the BMI catalogue over the past year: “A Little Bit Stronger” by Sara Evans; “Baggage Claim” by Miranda Lambert; “Drink in My Hand” by Eric Church; “You” by Chris Young; and “Take a Back Road,” recorded by Rodney Atkins.
 
Song of the Year “Take a Back Road” earned more than one million performances in 2011 alone – the equivalent of the song being performed back-to-back for six consecutive years – making it one of the most-performed songs of the year in any musical genre.
 
The BMI Country Awards ceremony honors capped off an incredible year for Laird, who recently scored his tenth No. 1 single with Little Big Town’s “Pontoon” and stepped behind the boards to produce Kacey Musgraves’ soon-to-be-released major label debut. The versatile hit-maker also continued to work with a diverse selection of the world’s top R&B, pop and rock songwriters and producers, and co-founded Creative Nation, an innovative music publishing and management company, with wife Beth Laird.