Nashville

ASCAP will celebrate the 35th annual ASCAP Christian Music Awards on Monday, May 6th at The Franklin Theatre. The ASCAP Nashville creative team will present Most Performed Song awards to the writers and publishers of the most-played songs in Christian music, as well as recognize ASCAP's Christian Music Songwriter of the Year, Songwriter/Artist of the Year, Song of the Year and Publisher of the Year.

From high-profile performances from ASCAP members Prince, Green Day and Justin Timberlake to a panoply of sponsored showcases, panel appearances and everything in-between, ASCAP music, reps and messages were out in full force at SXSW this year.

The ASCAP Presents… showcase took over the Red Eyed Fly in Austin, TX at SXSW on Wednesday, March 13th for an incredible night of performances from some of the world’s hottest new songwriters and artists.

Music Row recently gathered to cheer the ASCAP songwriters behind three big #1s: Brady Paisley's "Southern Comfort Zone," co-written with Kelly Lovelace & Chris DuBois; Jason Aldean's "The Only Way I Know," by Ben Hayslip & David Lee Murphy; and The Band Perry's "Better Dig Two," by Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally & Trevor Rosen.

Grammy-winning ASCAP country superstar LeAnn Rimes performed songs from her upcoming CD release Spitfire at a recent BMG Chrysalis showcase. The album, set for an April 9th release on Curb and produced/co-written by Darrell Brown, is Rimes's first release of all-original material in six years.

All ASCAP members are invited to attend ASCAP's General Annual Membership Meeting at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles. The meeting is free to attend and will update members on the "state of the union" of ASCAP.

ASCAP presented a performance and Q&A session with hit songwriters Josh Kear and Dan Wilson in Washington, DC. The event was designed to entertain and inform members of Congress and their staffs about the creative process of songwriting and the challenges facing songwriters in the digital world.

Steven Tyler & Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Mick Jones & Lou Gramm of Foreigner, JD Souther, Holly Knight and Tony Hatch (PRS) will become the latest inductees into the Songwriters Hall of Fame at the organization’s 44th annual Induction and Awards Dinner, to be held in June in New York City.

ASCAP members earned multiple nominations, including songwriters Josh Kear and Shane McAnally for Songwriter of the Year; Eric Paslay for Song of the Year; Big & Rich, Love and Theft, and Sugarland for Vocal Duo; Lady Antebellum and Zac Brown Band for Vocal Group and many more.

To be held on March 23rd in Nashville, the two-part “Ping Pong & Songs” event will include a celebrity ping pong tournament and an intimate, in-the-round style songwriters’ night, with proceeds from both benefitting Lady Antebellum’s newly created charitable initiative, LadyAID.

The CMA Triple Play Awards, which honor songwriters who pen three #1 hits in a 12-month period, were recently held in Nashville. Twelve songwriters received awards, including eight ASCAP members: Dierks Bentley, Ben Hayslip, Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley, Shane McAnally, Eric Paslay and Neil Thrasher.

Blue Sky Riders have taken flight with the release of their full-length debut, Finally Home. A who's who of music royalty, the group counts the iconic Kenny Loggins, Nashville hitmaker Georgia Middleman and award-winning songwriter Gary Burr in its ranks. We talked with them at Sundance about their newfound collaboration.

ASCAP hosted a #1 Party in Nashville to celebrate the team behind Carrie Underwood's hit single, "Blown Away." ASCAP co-writers Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins were honored, along with fellow ASCAP member and longtime Underwood producer Mark Bright, publishers Big Loud Shirt and Big Yellow Dog, and label Arista Nashville.

ASCAP's monthly showcase series, designed to highlight Nashville's best of the best, kicked off 2013 with featured songwriter-artists John Martin, Jonathan Capeci and Joey Beretta (of Dinner and a Suit), Lisa Carver, Austin Jenckes, Matthew Perryman Jones and Jeffrey James.

ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year Ben Hayslip, along with hit-makers Ben Glover, Josh Osborne and more, will be featured on “The ASCAP Songwriters Show,” an exclusive weekly radio show on Nashville's WSM "The Legend." The songwriters will perform live in the studio and tell the stories behind their biggest hits.