BMI Icon Billy Sherrill and Taylor Swift with her awards for BMI Songwriter of the Year and Co Writer of BMI Song of the Year and BMI President Del Bryant at the 58th Annual BMI Country Music Awards at BMI on November 9, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for BMI)

Through songs such as “Mine,” “White Horse” and “Fifteen,” Taylor Swift has shown a real appreciation for great drama and complex character development.

This week, she’s experienced drama firsthand. On Tuesday, she won BMI’s Country Songwriter of the Year award, becoming the youngest person ever to claim it. And she and co-writer Liz Rose shared Country Song of the Year for “You Belong With Me,” recognized as the most-played country title over a full year, according to the performing rights organization.

Just a day earlier, Taylor sang at a funeral for a friend.

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Taylor Swift photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.

Taylor Swift couldn’t ask for much better timing. As she heads into the last week of promotion for her new album, Speak Now, she was named Songwriter/Artist of the Year Sunday night during the Nashville Songwriters Association International’s annual songwriter awards at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel.

Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin took Song of the Year for penning the emotional Miranda Lambert hit “The House That Built Me,” and Chris DuBois earned Songwriter of the Year for his work as an author of Craig Morgan’s “This Ain’t Nothin’” and the Brad Paisley singles “Then” and “Welcome To The Future.”

The awards were part of a formal evening that saw four new members added to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and had 11 titles recognized by the songwriting community as the cream of the crop: Songs I Wish I’d Written. That list included “Need You Now,” “White Liar,” “Big Green Tractor” and Taylor’s “You Belong With Me.”

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Miranda Lambert photo courtesy of Shopkeeper Management.

“The truth,” Miranda Lambert sang in “White Liar,” “comes out a little at a time.”

For the first time in history, the Country Music Association rolled out its nominations in a two-day process, and when it was all said and done, the truth is that Miranda had set a new all-time mark. She joined Dierks Bentley to read the finalists in the last five categories Wednesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and discovered she’d amassed nine nominations in all — more than any other female in history.

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Miranda Lambert photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville. Lady Antebellum photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

In a day of firsts, the Country Music Association began a two-day unveiling of the nominations for its 44th annual awards Tuesday, leaving Miranda Lambert, Lady Antebellum and Zac Brown Band in an unprecedented overnight drama as they wait to see if they can maintain the lead positions in the list of finalists.

Miranda’s “The House That Built Me” and “White Liar” each ended up as finalists in both Single and Music Video of the Year, accounting for four of her five first-day nominations. Additionally, both titles are up for Song of the Year, though Miranda received only one nomination in that category; she was a co-writer on “White Liar” but did not compose “The House That Built Me,” which brought Song of the Year nods to songwriters Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin.

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Nan Kelley, Tim McGraw & Faith Hill at the Nashville Rising Flood Benefit. Photo by Jenny Dew, GAC staff.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill assembled an impressive array of stars for this week’s Nashville Rising flood-relief concert, and a bunch of them join host Nan Kelley on this week’s edition of GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown.

Jason Aldean, Julie Roberts, Luke Bryan and LeAnn Rimes all found their way onto the stage at Music City’s Bridgestone Arena as Nashville’s music community gathered together to assist the town as it recovers from a devastating flood the first weekend in May. Altogether, organizers expect the show will generate $2 million to $3 million total to aid a bevy of rejuvenation efforts.

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Miranda Lambert & Blake Shelton at the Fremont Street Experience during ACM Week in Las Vegas on Saturday, April 17, 2010. Photo courtesy of the Academy of Country Music.

It’s barely been a week since Miranda Lambert received a ring — and a wedding proposal — from longtime boyfriend Blake Shelton.

Since they began dating in 2005, she’s fielded frequent questions from the media about when they might tie the knot, which only put more focus on the possibility. But while she hoped internally that it would happen, she gave Blake the space to pop the question when he was ready. He asked her May 9 in the woods near her home in Tishomingo, Okla., and she didn’t see the proposal coming.

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Lady Antebellum pictured at the 45th Academy of Country Music Awards at MGM Grand Resort in Las Vegas, NV on April 18, 2010. © RD/ Erik Kabik/ Retna Digital

If anyone had doubts about Lady Antebellum’s rise to prominence, the band likely erased them Sunday night when it won five trophies in three different categories during the 45th annual Academy of Country Music Awards telecast at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.

Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood collectively ended Rascal Flatts’ seven-year run as Top Vocal Group. They also shared Song of the Year for “Need You Now” with fellow composer Josh Kear, becoming the first band ever to win that honor and win an additional trophy by penning its own song. “Need You Now” also got them victories as artist and producer for Single Record of the Year.

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Miranda Lambert rehearses on Friday, April 16, 2010 for the 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards. Photo courtesy of the Academy of Country Music.

Miranda Lambert‘s entertaining clip for her feisty song, “White Liar” won the ACM award for Video of the Year last night in an off-camera country  radio event, reports The Tennessean.

The paper says Miranda thought she was there to take photos with the broadcasters — and then found out she was being honored. Continue Reading

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Miranda Lambert photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Reba McEntire hosts the 45th annual Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday, and many of the genre’s biggest stars — including Toby Keith, Brooks & Dunn, Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban and Kenny Chesney — are already getting prepped for a bevy of performances and trophy presentations in Las Vegas.

The West Coast-based ACMs are a friendly rival of the Nashville-based Country Music Association awards, but the two are often confused by fans (and by some journalists outside of Nashville) because their acronyms — ACM and CMA — are so similar. The ACM has taken some steps to differentiate itself, and one of the biggest is allowing fans to vote for a few of the trophies. The Top New Artist and Entertainer of the Year have a fan-voted component, in effect creating a competition among some fan groups to have their favorite stars recognized.

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Miranda Lambert photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

It’s rare when the taste of music critics lines up with what the general public likes, but in the case of Miranda Lambert, both factions seem to be in agreement.

Earlier this month, “White Liar” was named the Best Country Single of 2009 in the Nashville Scene Country Music Critics Poll. This week, the song went to No. 1 on the USA Today Mediabase country chart, indicating it’s the song heard most by country fans on the radio. Stations would not play it so heavily if it weren’t, in fact, one of the public’s favorite songs of the moment.

It’s the first chart-topping hit for Miranda, who sent out a photo over Twitter of her enjoying the moment with champagne and a cigar.

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