Top 25 Billboard Hot Country Songwriters of 2023

In November 2023, Hoge was honored at the annual SESAC Nashville Awards, for his work as a co-writer on the Kane Brown and Katelyn Brown hit “Thank God.” The song reached No. 2 on the Hot Country Songs chart in January 2023.

The reigning CMA entertainer of the year, Wilson is also a co-writer on her song “Watermelon Moonshine,” which reached No. 7 on the Hot Country Songs chart this year (the song was a three-week Country Airplay chart No. 1). She is also a co-writer on her latest single, “Wildflowers and Wild Horses,” which debuted on the Hot Country Songs chart in December 2023 and is currently in the top 30.

Phillips is a co-writer on Morgan Wallen’s “Thinkin’ ‘About Me,” which reached No. 3 on the Hot Country Songs chart this year, as well as Nate Smith’s “World on Fire” (No. 7 on Hot Country Songs, and a multi-week No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart) and Chase Matthew’s “Love You Again.”

Isbell co-wrote several songs on Luke Combs’s album Gettin’ Old, including “Love You Anyway,” which reached No. 3 on the Hot Country Songs chart in February 2023. He also co-wrote Darius Rucker’s single “Fires Don’t Start Themselves.”

Harvey is a co-writer on Bailey Zimmerman’s hit single “Rock and a Hard Place,” which peaked on the Hot Country Songs chart in 2022, but went on to spend six weeks atop the Country Airplay chart in 2023.

Hackworth is also a co-writer on Bailey Zimmerman’s hit single “Rock and a Hard Place.”

Warren is also a co-writer on Bailey Zimmerman’s hit single “Rock and a Hard Place.”

Thompson contributed writing to several successful releases in 2023, including Luke Grimes’ Pain, Pills or Pews EP, Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time album and Jordan Davis’s Bluebird Days. He is also a co-writer on Thomas Rhett’s “Angels Don’t Always Have Wings,” which reached No. 17 on the Hot Country Songs chart this year.

Pendergrass contributed writing to songs on albums from Morgan Wallen, Chase Rice and Nate Smith. “Ain’t That Some,” a track included on Wallen’s One Thing at a Time album, debuted at No. 6 on the Hot Country Songs chart.

Fulcher contributed six songs to Luke Combs’s Gettin’ Old album this year, including “Love You Anyway,” which reached No. 3 on the Hot Country Songs chart.

McGill is a co-writer on several songs that made strong showings on the Hot Country Songs chart this year, including Luke Bryan’s “But I Got a Beer in My Hand,” Jordan Davis’s “Next Thing You Know,” Conner Smith’s “Creek Will Rise,” Russell Dickerson’s “God Gave Me a Girl” and Morgan Wallen’s “Ain’t That Some.”

As an artist, Jelly Roll (real name: Jason DeFord) notched a top 5 hit and two top 10 hits on the Hot Country Songs chart in 2023. He is a co-writer on all three of those songs: “Need a Favor,” “Save Me” (which featured Lainey Wilson), and the Jessie Murph collaboration “Wild Ones.”

Schmidt had a stellar year in 2023, as a co-writer on HARDY and Lainey Wilson’s collaboration “Wait in the Truck,” which reached the Country Songs top 5 and won CMA Awards honors for musical event of the year and music video of the year in November. He is also a co-writer on Kane Brown’s top 10 hit “Bury Me in Georgia” and Lainey Wilson’s “Watermelon Moonshine,” among other songs.

Oliver Anthony Music had an unprecedented breakthrough year in 2023, thanks to his hit “Rich Men North of Richmond.” The song debuted atop the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 and spent two weeks atop both that chart and Hot Country Songs. His song “Ain’t Gotta Dollar” reached No. 21 on Hot Country Songs, while “I Want to Go Home” reached No. 27 and “I’ve Got to Get Sober” reached No. 35.

Hitmaker HARDY, who goes by his full name Michael Hardy as a songwriter, released his genre-bending album The Mockingbird & The Crow in 2023, and saw several songs from the project land on the Hot Country Songs chart. “Truck Bed,” which he co-wrote, reached No. 11 on the Hot Country Songs chart, while other chart entries included “Beer,” “Red” and “Drink One For Me.”

HARDY also wrote several songs on Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time album, including “Tennessee Fan” and “I Wrote the Book,” and contributed writing to albums from Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson, Nate Smith and more country hitmakers.

In 2023, HARDY was named the Academy of Country Music’s artist-writer of the year.

While Luke Combs earned a massive hit as an artist in 2023 with his cover of Tracy Chapman’s solo-written “Fast Car,” Combs’s songwriting credits in 2023 include his own “Love You Anyway,” which reached No. 3 on Hot Country Songs, as well as “Going, Going, Gone” (No. 5), “Five Leaf Clover” (No. 11), “Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old” (No. 18) and “Where the Wild Things Are” (No. 13).

In November, Combs shared the BMI country songwriter of the year honor with Morgan Wallen.

JKash (Jacob Kasher Hindlin) is a co-writer on Morgan Wallen’s juggernaut hit “Last Night,” which stayed atop the Hot Country Songs chart for 25 weeks in 2023. At this year’s Billboard Music Awards, the song was also named top Hot 100 song, top streaming song, and top country song.

Ernest K. Smith, who goes by Ernest as an artist, contributed several songs to Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time album, including “Everything I Love” (which reached No. 7 on the Hot Country Songs chart) and “Cowgirls,” which he also collaborated on with Wallen. He also contributed to songs recorded by Bailey Zimmerman, Dan + Shay and more country hitmakers.

In July, singer-songwriter Swift released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), marking Swift’s third re-recorded project — this time, of 2010 country album Speak Now. With the project’s release, several Taylor’s Version songs hit the Hot Country Songs chart in 2023, including “Enchanted (Taylor’s Version),” “Back to December,” “Mine,” “Sparks Fly” and “Long Live,” as well as the “From the Vault” track “I Can See You.”

Byron is a co-writer on Morgan Wallen’s smash hit “Last Night,” which spent 25 weeks atop the Hot Country Songs chart, and was named both top Hot 100 song and top country song at this year’s Billboard Music Awards. Byron also co-wrote songs including “If You Love Me Now,” from Alana Springsteen’s Twenty Something project, “Get You” from Ashley Cooke’s album Shot in the Dark, and “Blink” from Chase Matthew’s Come Get Your Memory.

Morgan Wallen dominated 2023, thanks to his song “Last Night” and album One Thing at a Time. Wallen is a co-writer on more than a dozen of the 36 total songs on his One Thing at a Time album, including “Last Night,” which spent 16 weeks atop the all-genre Billboard 200, and 25 weeks in the penthouse of the Hot Country Songs chart. He is also a co-writer on other album cuts, including “Everything I Love” (which reached No. 7 on Hot Country Songs in 2023) and “I Wrote the Book” (No. 9). Wallen also co-wrote his collaboration with Thomas Rhett, “Mamaw’s House,” which reached No. 14 on Hot Country Songs.

In November, Wallen shared the BMI country songwriter of the year honor with Luke Combs.

In June, Tracy Chapman rose to the top of a Billboard chart for the first time since 2000, when she topped Billboard‘s Country Songwriters Chart thanks to Luke Combs’s cover of her 1988 hit “Fast Car.” The song was one of the biggest of 2024, reaching No. 2 on the Hot 100. Chapman also became the first Black songwriter to win the CMA Award for song of the year, when “Fast Car” took home the honor at the November 2023 ceremony.

“Fast Car” spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart in 2023. Earlier this year, Chapman told Billboard of the song’s chart renaissance: “I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honored to be there. I’m happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’”

Charlie Handsome (a.k.a. Ryan Vojtesak) is a co-writer on Morgan Wallen’s smash hit “Last Night,” which topped the all-genre Hot 100 chart for 16 weeks, and the Hot Country Songs chart for 25 weeks in 2023. He also co-wrote “Everything I Love,” “You Proof,” “Whiskey Friends,” “Me+All Your Reasons” and more songs from Wallen’s One Thing at a Time album. He also contributed to country songs by other popular artists, like Ernest’s “Kiss of Death” and Dylan Scott’s “This Town’s Been Good to Us.”

In November, Gorley won ASCAP’s country music songwriter of the year honor for a record 10th time. In addition to being a co-writer on Morgan Wallen’s juggernaut hit “Last Night,” the famously prolific Gorley also contributed to 11 other songs on Wallen’s One Thing at a Time album, including “Everything I Love,” “Thinkin’ ‘Bout Me” and the title track. He also co-wrote hits including Nate Smith’s “World on Fire,” HARDY’s “Truck Bed,” Dierks Bentley’s “Gold,” Dan+Shay’s “Save Me the Trouble” and Carly Pearce’s “What He Didn’t Do,” as well as Cole Swindell’s 2022 smash “She Had Me at Heads Carolina,” which was named song of the year at the 2023 Academy of Country Music Awards, while Gorley picked up the ACM’s songwriter of the year honor earlier this year.

Zach Bryan tops the 2023 year-end Hot Country Songwriters list. Bryan not only released two projects in 2023 (his self-titled LP and the Boys of Faith EP), but he also earned chart sturdy hits thanks to the Kacey Musgraves collaboration “I Remember Everything,” which topped the all-genre Hot 100 this year, and the solo “Something in the Orange,” which reached the Hot 100’s top 10.

But he also dominated the Hot Country Songs chart, with “Something in the Orange” spending six weeks atop the chart and “I Remember Everything” spending 14 weeks at the chart’s pinnacle. Bryan and Musgraves co-wrote “I Remember Everything,” while he’s the sole writer of “Something in the Orange.” Bryan saw nine overall songs hit the top 10 on the Hot Country Songs chart in 2023, and was the sole writer on many of those songs.