ASCAP Country Music Awards: 'Famous Friends' is the Country Song of the Year

For Nashville hitmaker Corey Crowder, nothing quite compares to winning an ASCAP Country Music Award.

"It's a bucket list [award] for me," said Crowder, a country songwriter known for co-writing Chris Young and Blake Shelton hits. "It's not influenced by anything other than how the song performed. That means in a lot to me. In theory, that means people really loved it, right? It means you're doing what you're supposed to do."

This week, Crowder earned his first ASCAP Country Music Award, receiving Country Song of the Year for co-writing Chris Young and Kane Brown chart-topper "Famous Friends." A multi-week No. 1 song on country radio, "Famous Friends" topped Billboard's year-end Country Airplay chart in 2021.

ASCAP — one of three major performance rights organizations in Nashville — celebrates top Music Row songwriters each year ahead of the CMA Awards. The non-profit operation announced winners Monday via social media; ASCAP plans to hold a private celebration for honorees Monday evening at the SoHo House in Wedgewood-Huston.

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Songwriters honored this year include those with a hand in Cody Johnson's "'Til You Can't," Kelsea Ballerini and Kenny Chesney's "Half of My Hometown," Walker Hayes' "Fancy Like," Jordan Davis and Luke Bryan's "Buy Dirt," Carly Pearce's "Never Wanted To Be That Girl" and Chris Stapleton's "You Should Probably Leave," among others.

For Crowder, "Famous Friends" — a song about life's daily heroes — topped this year's list because "it's such a ground-level [song]."

"Referring to regular, everyday people as famous, you just don't hear that often," Crowder said. He added: "[It's] speaking about something that people relate to in a different way."

And it wouldn't be another year at the ASCAP Country Music Awards without Ashley Gorley, the Tom Brady of performance rights honors. For the ninth time in his career, Gorley earned Songwriter of the Year at the ASCAP Country Music Awards. He topped this year's songwriters behind co-writes on Thomas Rhett's "Country Again," Dan + Shay's "Steal My Love," Morgan Wallen's "Sand In My Boots," Stapleton's "You Should Probably Leave" and more.

Publisher of the Year returned to Warner Chapelle Music, which backed songs this year such as "Buy Dirt," "You Should Probably Leave" and Pearce's chart-topping collaboration with Ashley McBryde, "Never Wanted To Be That Girl."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: ASCAP Country Music Awards: 'Famous Friends' wins Song of the Year