Country Songwriters Honored At CMA Triple Play Awards

Luke Combs
Tanner Morris
– Luke Combs
Luke Combs brings the country cool to the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, Tenn., May 6.

Country music luminaries gathered in Nashville on Tuesday to honor the genre’s most successful songwriters as part of the CMA Triple Play Awards.

Held at Marathon Music Works, the industry luncheon recognized songwriters who penned three songs that went No. 1 within a 12-month period based on the Country Aircheck, Billboard Country Airplay and Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.

Thomas Rhett, Luke Combs, Jesse Frasure, Nicolle Galyon, Ashley Gorley, Tyler Hubbard, Josh Kear, Shane McAnally, Chase McGill and Josh Osborne were all honored at the event.

Between them, the recognized musicians wrote recent hits for artists including Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Camila Cabello, Florida George Line, Jason Aldean, Sam Hunt, Blake Shelton, Midland, Kane Brown, Jon Pardi, Chris Janson, Old Dominion, Dan + Shay, Lady Antebellum and Cole Swindell.

Combs and Rhett accepted the award for songs they both wrote and recorded.

“This is truly an award that is not for me, it’s for the publishers, the promo teams, the fans in country radio, the people that buy tickets to my concerts,” said Combs. “This is my first one so it’s really, really cool to win. Only Ashley Gorley has 100 of them.”

With a global concert gross of $19.9 million, Thomas Rhett notched a spot on Pollstar‘s Year End Top 100 Worldwide Tours in 2018.