BMI's President & CEO Del Bryant, BMI Icon Kris Kristoffeson, BMI Song of the Year Honoree Taylor Swift, BMI Songwriter of the Year Bobby Pinson, and BMI's Jody Williams at the 2009 BMI Country Awards. Photo courtesy of BMI.

Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” won Song of the Year Tuesday from the performing rights organization BMI while Bobby Pinson — credited with hits by Sugarland, Toby Keith and Josh Gracin — took home Songwriter of the Year during the 57th annual presentation.

While the event focused primarily on a year’s worth of accomplishments, lifetime honors were given out to two musical acts. Brooks & Dunn received the BMI Presidents Award, coming as the duo prepares its final concert tour. Kris Kristofferson was also named a BMI Icon, recognizing his contributions through such songs as “For The Good Times,” “Why Me” and “Help Me Make It Through The Night.”

The black-tie event was a ritzy one, though the work required to make a splash there is hardly glamorous. BMI is located just a block away from the piece of real estate where Kris once worked as a recording-studio janitor. And Bobby — recognized for writing Sugarland’s “All I Want To Do” and “Already Gone,” as well as Toby’s “She Never Cried In Front Of Me” and Josh’s “We Weren’t Crazy” — remembers doing mundane jobs just trying to keep his head above water in Nashville before his obsession with songwriting finally started paying off.

“I’ve always said [success] has to do with how willin’ you are to move to town and be unvalidated for five years,” Bobby said previously. “It’s almost in the beginning how good you can deliver pizzas. We managed to get through that and managed to just not be anybody’s anybody, and now things are linin’ up and I credit some of it to as an artist — one of the to-date shortest artist careers ever: here today, gone today — but out of that, I made a record that I’m really proud of, that kinda became an artist’s album, that they listen to, an artist’s artist thing. And out of that came these co-writes with Toby and with Sugarland.”

“Love Story” gave Taylor the BMI Song of the Year for the second year in a row. In 2008, “Teardrops On My Guitar” won the same honor. It comes in the midst of a potential awards bonanza for Taylor. She picked up three nominations Tuesday for January’s People’s Choice Awards. She’s in the running for four trophies — including Entertainer of the Year — at Wednesday’s Country Music Association Awards. And she’s up for six at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles Nov. 22.

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