2018 Golden Boot Awards: Vote Now for Songwriter of the Year

Welcome to the fifth annual Golden Boot Awards! The Boot’s fan-voted digital awards, the Golden Boot Awards feature 10 categories of staff-selected nominees who made waves in the country music world in 2018. Readers can vote for their preferred winner in each category as often as once per hour through 11:59PM ET on Jan. 27. We’ll announce the winners on the site on Jan. 28.

The Songwriter of the Year category features some of the richest talent in country music. Many of the names that appear on this list are also recording artists and performers themselves, but have stood out as writers and contributors behind the scenes as well.

Ashley Gorley had a hand in mega-hits including Sam Hunt's "Body Like a Back Road" and Jon Pardi's "Dirt on My Boots," and the star-making tunesmith keeps cranking out the hits. Michael Hardy -- who, as an artist himself goes by his last name -- is a contributor to hits for Florida Georgia Line and Morgan Wallen, among others, including helping to write their recent hit collaboration, "Up Down."

Mike Henderson, formerly of the SteelDrivers, writes songs with talented guys such as Chris Stapleton and was recently awarded Song of the Year, along with Stapleton, at the 2018 CMA Awards, for "Broken Halos." Shane McAnally, meanwhile, one of the biggest names in country songwriting today , with tunes such as Thomas Rhett's "T-Shirt" and Sam Hunt's "Break Up in Small Town" to his credit.

Lori McKenna is the pen-wielder behind Tim McGraw's "Humble and Kind" and Little Big Town's "Girl Crush," and many, many more, while Heather Morgan has been a major contributor to the songs of Brett Eldredge, Kenny Chesney and Dierks Bentley in recent years (and, pssst: She's also an artist herself).

Cast your vote for Songwriter of the Year in the Golden Boot Awards poll below!