By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer
Country superstar Brad Paisley and Americana powerhouse Emmylou Harris will be inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the organization announced Wednesday.
The new class also includes Steve Bogard and Tony Martin in the contemporary songwriter category, Jim Lauderdale in the contemporary songwriter/artist category and Don Cook in the veteran songwriter category. They will be formally inducted on Oct. 6 during the 55th Anniversary Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala held at the Music City Center.
Paisley, a three-time Grammy-winning country music superstar with a whopping 41 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, is known for writing many of his own hits. Those include “He Didn’t Have To Be,” “Alcohol,” “I’m Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin’ Song),” “Letter To Me,” and “Remind Me” a duet with Carrie Underwood.
Harris, one of the great American folk singer-songwriters, with 13 Grammys to her name, is known for such hits like “Boulder To Birmingham,” “White Line” and “Heartbreak Hill.” She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008.
Bogard is known for radio staples like George Strait’s “Carried Away,” Rascal Flatts’ “Prayin’ For Daylight” and Dierks Bentley’s “Every Mile A Memory.”
Martin also wrote for Strait — “Baby’s Gotten Good At Goodbye” — as well as Jason Aldean (“A Little More Summertime”) and Keith Urban (“You Look Good In My Shirt”). Urban himself was recently inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2023.
Lauderdale is known for his own songs, like “I Feel Like Singing Today,” “She’s Looking At Me” and “Mighty Lonesome,” but also those he wrote for others, like Mark Chesnutt’s “Gonna Get A Life” and Patty Loveless’ “Halfway Down.”
Cook is notable for T. Graham Brown’s “I Wish That I Could Hurt That Way Again,” Steve Wariner’s “Small Town Girl” and Brooks & Dunn’s “Only In America.”
The chair of the organization’s board of directors, Rich Hallworth, and Mark Ford, its executive director, made the announcement at Nashville’s historic Columbia Studio A.
“Gathering as we do each year — to reveal and welcome the members of our incoming class — is truly one of the highlights of our calendar,” Hallworth said in a statement. “To these outstanding songwriters, we say — thank you for sharing your songs and your artistry with us.”