Ashley Gorley, Amy Allen, ‘Tennessee Whiskey’ Top 2025 NMPA Gold & Platinum Gala Honorees: ‘Long Live Songwriters’

The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) held its largest celebration for country songwriters of the year on Thursday night (Oct. 23) during the NMPA Gold & Platinum Gala, held at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville.

The event honored more than 150 songwriters whose country songs have reached Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum status, as certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) from the July 2024-June 2025 eligibility period, including more than 70 multi-platinum songwriters who were honored onstage that evening.

Ashley Gorley was named top male songwriter of the year for a third consecutive year, as the non-performing male songwriter with the most certifications over the past year. Among his songs that earned certifications were “I Had Some Help,” “Rumor” and “You Should Probably Leave.”

“He is the Michael Jordan, the Patrick Mahomes of songwriting,” NMPA president/CEO David Israelite said of Gorley. In taking the stage to accept the honor, Gorley praised all of the songs that had been honored during the evening, particularly older compositions that have endured through the years.

“This is such a fun night, and such a variety of songs [being honored],” Gorley said. “I’m reminded, ‘Where the Green Grass Grows’ and ‘In Color,’ these are some of the best songs ever and I was very reminded of how great country music is and challenged on the bar of how great these songs have to be, and how they do live on….thank you for this award. I don’t take this lightly, I don’t take this for granted.”

Amy Allen was named top female songwriter of the year, for earning more certifications over the past year than any other non-performing female songwriter in the country genre. Allen was honored for her work on songs including the Koe Wetzel and Jessie Murph collaboration “High Road.”

“Thank you for inspiring me,” Allen said from the stage. “My heart has always led me toward country music because of my love for storytelling. I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be half the songwriter or person I am today without my founding fathers, Dolly Parton and John Prine, and my real Holy Trinity, which is Natalie Hemby, Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsey. I cannot express how much I have learned from these three women about songwriting, but most importantly, about what it looks like to lift one another up in the industry and to write from a place of honesty.

Nashville has been a place of endless inspiration and a school of songcraft and genuine lyricism and the home of so many of my favorite collaborators,” she continued. “Thank you Nashville for taking me in with open arms. I cannot express how really grateful I am for that. Koe and Jessie, I love your hearts and I love your brains and I’m so honored to get to be a part of the songs we did together this year. I love them and I don’t take them for granted.”

Country Music Hall of Famer Dean Dillon accepted the platinum anthem award as a co-writer on the highest-certified song of the year, the RIAA 17x platinum-certified “Tennessee Whiskey,” which was first released in 1981 by David Allan Coe, though Chris Stapleton’s bluesy rendition of “Tennessee Whiskey” brought the song to a new generation of listeners.

In accepting the honor, Dillon thanked his co-writer on the song, Linda Hargrove. He also praised Music City’s songwriting community, saying, “Nashville songwriters, in my humble opinion, are the best in the world.”

ERNEST then paid tribute to the song with a faithful rendering of “Tennessee Whiskey.” 

“It is an honor to get to honor you. As a kid who grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, I’m living my dream every day by getting to write country songs,” Ernest said to Dillon, adding, “Getting to sing a song for you and because of you has me rattled.” 

Other performers during the evening were Brothers Osborne and Maddie & Tae. Maddie & Tae performed their 4x platinum-certified hit, “Die From a Broken Heart,” and told the crowd they “learned everything we know about songwriting from this beautiful community.”

In perhaps the evening’s most delightfully unexpected moment, a dog made its way onto the stage and joined them as they finished the song. Maddie & Tae then performed a newer song called “Somebody Will,” which they called “one of our favorite songs we’ve ever written.” 

Brothers Osborne performed their 3x platinum-certified 2015 hit “Stay a Little Longer,” recalling how the brother duo used to work as servers at the Country Music Hall of Fame before finding success as songwriters and artists. “It’s an honor to be here,” they said, before performing an acoustic rendition of “Stay a Little Longer” and turning it into a righteous guitar jam spectacle.

Allen perhaps summed up the evening best, saying simply, “Long live songwriters.”

See the list of songwriters who were in attendance and honored for their songwriting works below:

2x Platinum:

Thomas Archer and Chris LaCorte, “Wind Up Missin’ You”

Jess Leary, “Where the Green Grass Grows”

Josh Hoge and Matthew McVaney, “Used to Love You Sober”

Erik Dylan, “There Was This Girl”

Josh Turner, “Long Black Train”

Jason Gantt, “Take it From Me”

Doug Johnson, “She Won’t Be Lonely Long”

Austin Nivarel, Joe Ragosta, and Robert Ragosta, “Need A Favor”

Bill Luther, “My Best Friend”

David Lee and Wynn Varble, “Me And My Kind”

Russell Dickerson and Parker Welling, “Love You Like I Used To”

Connie Harrington and Jordan Schmidt, “Caught Up In The Country”

3x Platinum:

Kelly Archer and Brett Tyler, “Wild As Her”

Paul Jenkins and Ben Williams, “Tennessee Orange”

John Osborne and TJ Osborne, “Stay A Little Longer”

Keith Follese, “Something Like That”

Greylan James, “Next Thing You Know”

Thomas Archer and James McNair, “Lovin’ On You”

Scotty Emerick and the late Toby Keith, “I Love This Bar”

Steve Dorff, “I Cross My Heart”

Cary Barlowe, “Famous Friends”

Tyler Reeve, “Does To Me”

Renee Blair and Jordan Schmidt, “Wait in the Truck”

4x Platinum:

Zach Kale, Emily Landis and Jim McCormick, “The Good Ones”

Josh Hoge, Jared Mullins and Christian Stalnecker, “Thank God”

Justin Ebach, “Singles You Up”

Marty James, Alexander Palmer, Frank Romano and Austin Shawn, “Religiously”

Brock Berryhill, Taylor Phillips and Will Weatherly, “Good As You”

Danny Wells, “Check Yes or No”

Maddie Font, Taylor Kerr, and Deric Ruttan, “Die From A Broken Heart”

5x Platinum:

Chris DuBois and Ashley Gorley, “You Should Probably Leave”

Ben Stennis, “‘Til You Can’t”

Dallas Davidson, Ashley Gorley, and Ben Johnson, “One of Them Girls”

Stephony Smith, “It’s Your Love”

James Otto and Lee Thomas Miller, “In Color”

Ashley Gorley and Ernest Keith Smith, “I Had Some Help”

Brandon Lancaster, “Greatest Love Story”

Chris DuBois and Chris Janson, “Buy Me A Boat”

Sean Cook and Jerrell J-Kwon Jones, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”

6x Platinum:

Ashley Gorley and the late Kyle Jacobs, “Rumor”

Jacob Hackworth, Jet Harvey and Heath Warren, “Rock and a Hard Place”

Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson and Ben Hayslip, “I Don’t Want This Night to End”

Jerry Flowers, “House Party”

7x Platinum:

Dallas Davidson, Chris DeStefano and Ashley Gorley, “That’s My Kind Of Night”

Hillary Lindsey and Liz Rose, “Girl Crush”

8x Platinum:

Zach Kale and Jon Nite, “I Hope”

Diamond/10x Platinum:

Matt McGinn and Jordan Schmidt, “What Ifs”

Rob Snyder and Channing Wilson, “She Got The Best of Me”

11x Platinum:

Thomas Archer and Taylor Phillips for 11x Platinum, “Hurricane”

Matt McGinn for 11x Platinum, “Heaven”

17x Platinum:

Dean Dillon, “Tennessee Whiskey”