Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame honors Keith Urban, Kix Brooks and other new inductees with superstar appearances

Kenny Chesney, Eric Church and Dolly Parton surprisingly appeared on the same stage in Nashville on Wednesday evening.

However, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Music City Center's top-floor grand ballroom is one of the very few rooms on very few Nashville nights where multiple-time Hall of Famers and inimitably cool superstars with multiple No. 1 hits are primarily the only people sitting at tables next to each other and passing vinaigrette salad dressing during the event's dinner intermission.

The 53rd Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala honored Casey Beathard and David Lee Murphy in the contemporary songwriter category, Rafe Van Hoy in the veteran songwriter category, Keith Urban in the contemporary songwriter/artist category, Kix Brooks in the veteran songwriter/artist category and the late John Jarrard in the Hall's Legacy category, honoring induction-worthy candidates who are deceased.

As presently constituted, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame honors a who's who of creative minds in country and related genres including "Whisperin'" Bill Anderson, Bobby Braddock, Garth Brooks, Felice & Boudleaux Bryant, Johnny Cash, Don & Phil Everly, Harlan Howard, Kris Kristofferson, Loretta Lynn, Bob McDill, Bill Monroe, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, Dottie Rambo, Jimmie Rodgers, Fred Rose, Don Schlitz, Cindy Walker and Hank Williams.

Class of 2023: Kix Brooks, Keith Urban, others among 2023 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees

This is a crew of people who, like anyone who works in a largely behind-the-scenes craft, work with immeasurably humility and gravitas towards what they perceive to be God-given talent. However, because they've used their minds to create art that has inspired billions of the world's citizens, more than a small amount of well-earned rock star-style swagger is involved in their confidence, too.

Humble, gifted craftsmen Jarrard, Beathard and Brooks

Legacy award-winner John Jarrard wrote 11 No. 1 hits between 1983-2001. However, as a blind double-amputee who suffered multiple kidney failures, his success and renown grew as his quality of life suffered in equal, then more significant, measure.

The power of what a song like Blackhawk's 1994 hit "I Sure Can Smell The Rain" means when placed in context with his life story becomes incredibly much more profound.

Casey Beathard described himself as "painting houses and cleaning gutters" while enjoying life as the son of Pro Football Hall of Fame executive Bobby Beathard and being a fraternity-pledged college football star at Elon University.

He's achieved 24 top-ten singles (six No. 1s between 2002-2010) in the three decades since he caught the songwriting bug.

One of the evening's key themes is that the art of songwriting does not discriminate or decide the appropriate timing upon when to emerge as a stunningly unexpected and wholly life-redefining north star in someone's existence.

Eric Church (in the first of two appearances on the evening) honored him not just by playing his 2013-released (and Beathard co-written) top-10 country hit "Like Jesus Does" but more intensely by noting that the three outside cuts he's had in his career all feature Beathard's name attached to them.

Kix Brooks was already a solid member of Nashville's songwriting community before being paired with equally reliable writer Ronnie Dunn in 1990 as the tandem Brooks & Dunn. The notion of maintaining a straightforward approach to the craft and work of developing songs with incredibly sustainable life cycles has always defined Brooks' success.

The honor clearly moved the artist.

Fascinating to note was seeing Cody Johnson, another man who has never removed his hat while perpetually surging, undaunted, to more significant Nashville acclaim, perform Brooks & Dunn's "Only In America."

As always with Brooks, the work yields an unparalleled and directly impacting legacy.

Van Hoy, Murphy and Urban's rock-star energy

Rafe Van Hoy's songs have sold over 150 million records in five decades.

Fellow Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer and Country Music Hall of Famer Bobby Braddock — whose Music City acclaim trumps his by two additional decades — inducted him.

Van Hoy and Braddock are the co-writers of George Jones and Tammy Wynette's "Golden Ring." Braddock also penned Jones' classic "He Stopped Loving Her Today."

Rafe Van Hoy was nearly played off the stage because he spoke for so long.

But he also, alongside Braddock, represented a historical lineage longer than country music and wrote the songs that defined the mythical essence of two of its most defining stars.

In this room, this event is where the silent pens behind the loudest sounds finally meet the level of their art.

If he decided he wanted to speak all night, few in the room could've been justified in stopping him.

Craig Wiseman noted that David Lee Murphy was the living embodiment of the legacy of Kris Kristofferson's cool and an immeasurable asset to selling an element of the global pop-crossover branding of mainstream country music.

Murphy's celebrating his 40th year in country music in 2023 and has a cut on Jason Aldean's forthcoming 11th studio album. Jason Aldean wore a black hat and sang Murphy's 2009-written "Big Green Tractor" along with his rise to Nashville success.

Couple that with Kenny Chesney appearing onstage to sing another hit song he wrote, 2006's "Life In Fast Forward."

As jet black-bearded and jet black-haired Murphy — clad in a leather shirt as well — strode to the stage to accept his induction and stared out at the crowd in attendance, it was clear that Craig Wiseman wasn't wrong.

The evening's festivities were closed by Eric Church saluting Keith Urban by playing a heartfelt rendition of Urban's self-written 2002 hit "Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me?" This was followed by an audible gasp filling a room of not-so-easily impressed music industry titans as Dolly Parton — herself a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame — presented Urban with his honor.

The moment crystallized the importance of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Church spoke about how he and Urban, though superstar hitmakers with 33 No. 1 hits between them, still share rare deep-cut Music City songs and maintain their youthful enthusiasm for what Urban noted was the "inspirational alchemy" that inspires great songs.

Parton noted her longtime admiration for Urban. In her comments, it also became apparent that she, moreso than anyone else, is responsible for passing down, by osmosis, the Nashville-to-global country-to-rock cool that facilitated Urban needing to change very little of who he authentically was as a child singing Parton's hits in New Zealand, to appeal to Music City's community.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Keith Urban, Kix Brooks among songwriters honored at Hall of Fame gala