TONY ARATA

Garth Brooks has recorded seven of Arata’s songs including the “The Dance” which won song of the year at The Academy of Country Music and received both a Country Music Association and a Grammy nomination. He has had No. 1 records with “Here I Am” (Patty Loveless), “I’m Holding My Own” (Lee Roy Parnell), and “Dreaming With My Eyes Open” (Clay Walker). Arata was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012.

MATRACA BERG

Berg earned her earned her first #1 at 18 and Grammy nomination at 22. Her album “Sunday Morning to Saturday Night” was heralded as one of the Top 10 Albums in any genre of 1997 by TIME, People, Entertainment Weekly and USA Today. Berg co-wrote “Strawberry Wine” which Deana Carter released as a single and won the “Song of the Year” at the 1997 CMA Awards. “You and Tequila” was co-written by Matraca Berg and recorded by Kenny Chesney. The song received two nominations in the 54th Grammy Awards. Berg was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014.

TOM DOUGLAS

Douglas has co-written several songs for Tim McGraw, including the Number One singles “Grown Men Don’t Cry” and “Southern Voice” as well as the Top Five songs “My Little Girl” and “Let It Go.” He also co-wrote Martina McBride’s s #3 “Love’s The Only House” as well as Lady Antebellum’s #1 “I Run to You.”  He received an Academy Award nomination in 2011 for co-writing a song for the film Country Strong. He also co-wrote Miranda Lambert’s #1 and Grammy award-winning song “The House That Built Me.” Douglas was inducted to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014.

JAMIE FLOYD

Floyd co-wrote the title track to Ashley Monroe’s album: ‘The Blade,’ which received a 2016 Grammy nomination for Best Country Album.  Ashley’s heartfelt version was also named “one of the top songs of 2015” by NPR Music and The New York Times. Jamie has written songs for artists including Ronnie Dunn of the duo Brooks & Dunn, Kellie Pickler, and R&B superstar Brian McKnight. In addition to writing for other artists, “writing for the small screen is quickly becoming Floyd’s forte” (Rolling Stone). Jamie wrote three original songs for the TV Movie, Manson’s Lost Girls, which premiered on Lifetime TV as well as the soundtrack for the Burt Reynolds film, Dog Years.

LEE THOMAS MILLER

Miller’s credits include 7 number one country hits: “The Impossible” (Joe Nichols), “The World”, “I’m Still a Guy” and “Perfect Storm” (Brad Paisley), “You’re Gonna Miss This” (Trace Adkins), “I Just Wanna Be Mad” (Terri Clark), and “Southern Girl” (Tim McGraw). Three of his songs — “You’re Gonna Miss This”, “The Impossible” and “In Color” by Jamey Johnson — were nominated for Best Country Song at the Grammy Awards.  Miller also co-wrote “Whiskey and You,” with Chris Stapleton which appears on Stapleton’s album “The Traveller.“

JOHN SEABROOK

Seabrook has been a contributor to The New Yorker since 1989 and became a staff writer in 1993. Seabrook explores the intersection between creativity and commerce in the fields of technology, design, and music. Seabrook is the author of “Nobrow: The Culture of Marketing—The Marketing of Culture,”  “Deeper: My Two-Year Odyssey in Cyberspace,”; and “Flash of Genius, and Other True Stories of Invention.” His most recent book, “The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory,” was published by Norton in October, 2015. Before joining the magazine, Seabrook was a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.

ALLEN SHAMBLIN

In 1989, it was Randy Travis’ #1 version of “He Walked On Water” which brought Allen to the forefront of the songwriting community. He has co-written four other “1” songs.  “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” a song co-written with Mike Reid and recorded by Bonnie Raitt was nominated for a Grammy Award and voted the #8 song of “The 100 Greatest Songs Of All Time” in the August 2000 issue of Mojo Magazine. He also co-wrote Miranda Lambert’s #1 and Grammy award-winning song “The House That Built Me.” Shamblin was inducted to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011.