Nashville Celebrates “Day Drinking” and “Girl Crush”

The people behind “Girl Crush,” including Liz Rose Music’s Scott Ponce, BMG’s Kos Weaver, BMI songwriter Lori McKenna, ASCAP’s Mike Sistad, songwriter Hillary Lindsey, BMI songwriter Liz Rose, members of LBT Kimberly Schlapman, Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook and Phillip Sweet, Warner Chappell’s Ben Vaughn, Universal Music Publishing’s Kent Earls and BMI’s Leslie Roberts.

The people behind the track “Day Drinking,” including LBT member Kimberly Schlapman, Universal Record’s Shane Allen, BMI songwriters Barry Dean and Troy Verges, Creative Nation/Pulse’s Beth Laird, BMI songwriter and LBT members Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook and Phillip Sweet, Warner Chappell’s Ben Vaughn, Universal Music Publishing’s Kent Earls, BMI’s Leslie Roberts and David Preston.

Members of Nashville’s music industry elite packed into venue Ruby yesterday (Aug. 20) to celebrate the back-to-back successes of “platinum-selling badasses” (to quote UMG Nashville’s Shane Allen) Little Big Town, thanks to “Day Drinking” and “Girl Crush,” both tracks from their latest album Painkiller.

The shindig began by celebrating the jaunty No. 1 single “Day Drinking,” penned by Little Big Town members Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook, and Phillip Sweet, with UMPG writer Troy Verges and Creative Nation writer Barry Dean. All are BMI writers.

“Day Drinking” marked Dean’s second No. 1 single (his first was another LBT mega-hit, “Pontoon”), and Verges’ eighth chart-topper.

“This is the first song we wrote for the record,” Fairchild commented.

BMI’s David Preston and Leslie Roberts were on hand to honor Fairchild, Westbrook, and Sweet with custom Gibson guitars to honor their first No. 1 song as writers. Preston also presented Little Big Town with BMI’s Million-Air award, certifying 1 million spins of “Day Drinking.”

Warner/Chappell’s Ben Vaughn called the celebration “the feel-good party of the year.”

Among those celebrating included Little Big Town’s manager Jason Owen and members of his team, along with UMPG’s Kent Earls, the CRB’s Holly Lane, and Creative Nation’s Luke Laird and Beth Laird, who continued their tradition of out-of-the-box ways of honoring the songwriters, this time with wooden coolers emblazoned with “Day Drinking.”

Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna, and Liz Rose (the Love Junkies) with Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlapman, Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook, and Phillip Sweet.

Next up, honors for the attention-grabbing, sultry ballad “Girl Crush,” penned by the Love Junkies, a.k.a. top-notch songwriting trio Lori McKenna (BMI), Hillary Lindsey (ASCAP), and Liz Rose (BMI). “Girl Crush” notched a record-breaking 13 weeks at No. 1 on the all-encompassing (including streams, sales and airplay) Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. “Girl Crush” was honored earlier this year as Song of the Year at the 2015 MusicRow Awards.

“There are songs that are game changers, and this is one of them,” said Fairchild, sharing that the band all but begged the writers to not play the song for any other artists upon hearing it for the first time.

“Thank you for trusting us with this amazing song,” Schlapman added, thanking Rose, McKenna, and Lindsey.

Massachusetts resident McKenna recalled how the song was penned during one of the trio’s writing sessions while she was in town. “We decided we would stay at Liz’s house and write every spare moment for three days,” said McKenna. “Liz can literally write a song in her sleep. I’ve seen it happen.” She also shared that Lindsey penned “Girl Crush”‘s first four verses on the spot.

Kos Weaver of BMG noted that the party marked Lindsey’s third No. 1 party in less than a week (she was previously honored at parties celebrating Tim McGraw’s “Shotgun Rider” and Carrie Underwood’s “Little Toy Guns”). “Hillary is a national treasure,” said Weaver, adding, “This song will go down in history.”

ASCAP’s Mike Sistad was also on hand to celebrate Lindsey as a contributor on “Girl Crush.”

Additional honors included Cooper Samuels of Avenue Bank announcing donations to Blood:Water and MusiCares on behalf of the songwriters of “Girl Crush” and “Day Drinking.” Meanwhile, UMG Nashville’s Royce Risser presented Little Big Town with plaques commemorating the platinum sales of “Girl Crush.”

That’s definitely worth a celebratory day drink or two.