Middle Tennessee State University-trained professionals didn’t have to “wait in the truck” at the 58th annual Academy of Country Music Awards ceremony — they were carrying trophies out to trucks, cars, planes and buses after Commercial Songwriting Program grad Michael Hardy’s big night with duet partner Lainey Wilson.

When May 11 was over, nine MTSU music industry leaders were celebrating wins and nominations in writing, producing and engineering categories at this year’s ACMs.

Singer-songwriter Hardy, who uses only his last name as a performer, and Wilson were this year’s biggest ACM winners. Each received four ACM awards by the end of the show, which streamed live via Amazon Prime Video from the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas.

Hardy, who was nominated for seven ACMs, received the artist-songwriter of the year award as well as ACM visual media of the year and music event of the year for “wait in the truck,” which follows a motorist’s fateful encounter with a stranger who’s a survivor of domestic violence.

The award-winning video is available below.

The music event award was actually a two-fer, gaining Hardy both artist/performer and producer wins for the project.

Wilson, who shared Hardy’s visual media and music event awards, also earned her first female artist of the year trophy and the album of the year award.

Grammy-winning and multi-ACM-nominated MTSU engineers Jason A. Hall, a 2000 Department of Recording Industry alumnus, and 2014 Audio Production Program graduate Jimmy Mansfield won, too, for crafting the sound of Wilson’s “Bell Bottom Country” album.

The pair won their most recent Grammy for Miranda Lambert’s 2020 country album “Wildcard.” They’ve been nominated for ACMs and other top awards for albums by Eric Church, Little Big Town, the Brothers Osborne and Ashley McBryde, among others.

Hall also has a 2005 best rock gospel album Grammy for his work with Audio Adrenaline.

Four-time Grammy-winning songwriter and past ACM nominee Josh Kear, a 1996 MTSU history graduate, also contributed songs to Wilson’s ACM-winning album, co-writing “Watermelon Moonshine” for the lineup.

The “Watermelon Moonshine” video is available below.

Kear earned his Grammys co-writing “Blown Away” and “Before He Cheats” for Carrie Underwood and “Need You Now” for Lady A. He also won the 2009 ACM song of the year award for “Need You Now.”

Multiplatinum former student Chris Young and 2012 commercial songwriting grad Mitchell Tenpenny also competed against Hardy and Wilson in the ACMs’ music event category, collaborating on “At the End of the Bar” for their nomination.

Young has been nominated nearly 20 times by the ACM since 2006 for awards ranging from top new vocalist to album of the year. Tenpenny received a new male artist of the year nomination in 2018.

Grammy-winning Master of Fine Arts and Recording Technologies alumnus Aaron Raitiere songwriting and singing played a significant role in McBryde’s ACM album nominee, the small-town-tales concept collection of “Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville.”

Raitiere won his first Grammy for co-writing “I’ll Never Love Again” for “A Star is Born” in the 2020 best song for visual media category. He also won the ACM’s 2018 Tex Ritter Film Award for his work on the movie.

Audio engineer nominee awaits Aug. 23 event

Scholarship creator and former MTSU student Hillary Scott and her Lady A bandmates received another group of the year nomination at this year’s ACMs. Lady A — Scott, Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley — have won a dozen ACM Awards, including the Gary Haber Lifting Lives Award for their philanthropy, since their first in 2007.

They won their first Grammy in 2009 for “I Run to You,” then shared four more in 2010 for “Need You Now,” also earning 1980 recording industry alumnus L. Clarke Schleicher two of his three engineering Grammys. The trio shared another best country album Grammy with Schleicher in 2011.

Scott’s 2016 independent album “Love Remains” also won her solo Grammys for best contemporary Christian music album and best contemporary Christian music performance/song.

And Department of Recording Industry alumnus F. Reid Shippen, a two-time winner of the ACM’s audio engineer of the year award, once again is a nominee in that category for his nearly three-decade career of chart-topping projects.

Shippen, a 1994 MTSU graduate who won his fifth career Grammy for engineering Gloria Gaynor’s 2019 best roots gospel album, will learn if he’s once again the ACM’s top engineer on Wednesday, Aug. 23, when the organization announces its 2023 Studio Recording Awards and Industry Awards at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.

The 58th Academy of Country Music Awards show from May 11 is available to watch free on Prime Video and via a link at https://www.acmcountry.com.

MTSU established its internationally recognized Department of Recording Industry in 1973 and presented its first Bachelor of Science degree in 1974. It offers undergraduate degrees in audio production, commercial songwriting and music business and a graduate program with the MFA degree and an MBA degree with a music business concentration.

Slightly more than 1,100 students currently are recording industry majors at MTSU. About two-thirds are audio production majors, and a third are music business or commercial songwriting majors.

For more information about the Department of Recording Industry in MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment, visit https://mtsu.edu/recording-industry.

The college, which also includes the School of Journalism and Strategic Media and the Department of Media Arts, has a website at https://mtsu.edu/media.

For more on the Academy of Country Music and its annual awards, including a list of all the latest nominees and winners, visit www.acmcountry.com.

— Gina E. Fann (gina.fann@mtsu.edu)