The Rascal Flatts hit “Mayberry” was the big winner at SESAC’s annual country awards, held last night (Nov. 10) at the performing rights organization’s Nashville headquarters.
The song’s writer, Arlos Smith, was named SESAC’s songwriter of the year. “Mayberry” was named country song of the year, and its publisher, Malaco Music, was country publisher of the year.
It was Smith’s second win as songwriter of the year. He took top honors in 2000 for his John Michael Montgomery hit “Home to You.” It was also the second publisher win for Malaco.
In the Americana music categories, SESAC honored writer/artists Jim Lauderdale, Kevin Welch and Kieran Kane and their publishers with Performance Activity Awards, which recognize songs from the SESAC repertory that received significant airplay during the past year.
Lauderdale was recognized for his song “Headed for the Hills,” published by Sky Eye Music and Critter City Music. Kane and Welch received their award for “You Can’t Save Everybody,” published by Glacier Park Music, Family Style Publishing and Chaos Canyon Songs.
In the country genre, 10 songs and their writers and publishers received Performance Activity Awards. In addition to “Mayberry,” they were “Young” (Naoise Sheridan, Multisongs), “I’m Gonna Take That Mountain” (Jerry Salley, Foray Music/ EMI and Sea Keeper Music), “Wave on Wave” (Justin Pollard and David Neuhauser, Drum Groove Music and Cooke’s Trust), “The Wrong Girl” (Elisabeth Rose, Sony/ATV Timber Publishing and Hillsboro Valley Songs), “Rough & Ready” (Brian White, Multisongs), “Cool to Be a Fool” (Joe Nichols, Foray Music/EMI and MR2 Songs), “Mr. Mom” (Ron Harbin, Harbinism.com Music), “Songs About Rain” (Elisabeth Rose, Sony/ATV Timber Publishing and Hillsboro Valley Songs) and “Somebody” (Sam Tate and Kathleen Ann Wright, Gravitron Music).
