NASHVILLE, TN (ANS) -- Producer and songwriter Ed Cash walked away as a big winner from the recent BMI Christian Music Awards, which saluted the writers and publishers of the past year’s most performed songs on Christian radio and television.

Ed Cash and others were honored during an annual Christian Music Awards ceremony, which was held on Saturday, April 21st at the company’s Music Row offices in Nashville, TN.

The BMI Christian Awards' big winners huddled together for a photo. Pictured are (l to r): BMI’s Phil Graham, Publisher of the Year Universal Music Publishing’s Dale Matthews, Songwriter of the Year Ed Cash and BMI’s Jody Williams.  (Photo by John Russell)

Cash earned the BMI “2008 Songwriter of the Year” for the songs “Made to Worship,” “Holding onto You,” and “How Can I Keep from Singing.” His composition “Made to Worship” also garnered the BMI “Song of the Year” award for Cash. The song was recorded by contemporary Christian artist Chris Tomlin, and was published by Alletrop Music.

BMI Vice President Jody Williams, along with Senior Director Thomas Cain and Associate Director Beth Mason, of BMI’s Writer/Publisher Relations department in Nashville, presented the awards, which spanned five categories—Christian Rock, Contemporary Christian, Inspirational, Urban Gospel and Southern Gospel.

Universal Music Publishing Group was also named as “Publisher of the Year.” This award is determined by the highest percentage of copyright ownership in award songs. The company’s eight award-winning songs included: “The Blessing of Abraham,” written producer and chorale director Donald Lawrence, “Dead Man (Carry Me),” co-written and recorded by Jars of Clay, “My Savior, My God,” written and recorded by Aaron Shust, and “Imagine Me,” co-penned and recorded by contemporary gospel artist Kirk Franklin.

Lawrence and Shust garnered two awards each. The night’s other big winners included tobyMac; Christian rock band Red’s Jasen Rauch and Anthony Armstong; Kirk Franklin; Red’s producer Robert Graves; Jars of Clay members Dan Haseltine, Charlie Lowell, Steve Mason and Matt Odmark; 2007 BMI Christian Songwriter of the Year Mark Hall; Sanctus Real producer Chris Stevens and Sanctus Real member Dan Gartley; producer, arranger and musician Jay Joyce; Kingdom Heirs member Dennis Murphy; producer, songwriter and music minister Isaiah D. Thomas; Rodney Griffin; Needtobreathe’s Bo Rinehart; singer/songwriter Aaron Sprinkle; songwriter/producer Marc Byrd; Percy James Bady; songwriters Adam Kohout, Tery Wilkins, David Nasser, Jules "Juda" Bartholomew, Twila LaBar, Joel Lindsey, Belinda Lee Smith, Lisa Stewart Seals; and the McClurkin Project’s Andrea McClurkin-Mellini and Nate McNair.

In addition to Universal Music Publishing Group, publishers winning multiple awards were Alletrop Music, EMI Christian Music Group (Meaux Mercy Publishing, River Oaks Music Company), Lilly Mack Music, Asheville Music Publishing, Chris White Music, Q W Publishing, Sony/ATV Songs LLC, and White Spot Publishing. For a complete list of winners, visit http://www.bmi.com/

Prior to the presentation of awards, Jars of Clay, Aaron Shust and Isaiah Thomas set the tone for the ceremony by performing moving renditions of their award-winning songs. There was also a reception and a dinner, which was held before the presentation of awards.