POLL: Who Should Win Songwriter of the Year at the 2016 ACM Awards?

The 2016 ACM Awards nominations are in, Dierks Bentley and Luke Bryan are getting revved up to co-host, and country fans are anxiously awaiting the April awards ceremony. To pass the time until the show, The Boot wants to know: Who do our readers think will win?

Let's look at Songwriter of the Year first: Luke Laird won the category in 2015, but he is not on the nominee list this year. Several of Nashville's other top songwriters are going head-to-head for the award in 2016.

Country fans can hear Rodney Clawson's mark in many of the genre's biggest songs from recent years: Bryan's "Crash My Party," the Band Perry's "Don't Let Me Be Lonely" and Florida Georgia Line's "Round Here," among others. He's written loads of songs for artists such as Faith Hill, George Strait and Jason Aldean, and he was nominated for Songwriter of the Year in 2015.

A Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter, Ross Copperman has been among Nashville's elite songwriters since 2011, after his own solo career wound down. Some of his hits include Kenny Chesney's "Pirate Flag," Brett Eldredge's "Beat of the Music," Billy Currington's "Don't It," Jake Owen's "Real Life," Bryan's "Strip It Down," Keith Urban's "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16" and more. He is also a sought-after producer.

More than 200 of Ashley Gorley's songs have been recorded by country artists: Trace Adkins' "You're Gonna Miss This," Carrie Underwood's "All American Girl" and "Good Girl," Brad Paisley's "American Saturday Night" and Frankie Ballard's "Young and Crazy" are just the beginning of the list. Most recently, Gorley has scored hits with Bryan's "Kick the Dust Up," several Sam Hunt singles and Thomas Rhett's "T-Shirt."

Grammy winner Shane McAnally, originally a solo artist for Curb Records, came into his own as a writer for other artists. He's won ACMs and CMAs and written for a plethora of artists, including Kacey Musgraves, Kelly Clarkson, Hunt, Chesney, Reba McEntire, Bryan, TBP, Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert -- and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Hits such as "Mama's Broken Heart," "Better Dig Two," "Downtown," "Merry Go 'Round," "Follow Your Arrow," "Say You Do," "Wild Child" and "Drunk Americans" were all written or co-written by McAnally.

Josh Osborne has several top-notch country songs to his credit. His first No. 1 hit as a songwriter was Chesney's "Come Over," and other fan-favorite songs include TBP's "Chainsaw," Currington's "We Are Tonight," Hunt's "Leave the Night On" and "Take Your Time," Urban's "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16" and Tim McGraw's "Top of the World."

Who should win Songwriter of the Year at the 2016 ACM Awards? You can vote in the poll below as often as once an hour March 31 at 11:59PM ET. We'll compile the results for our readers vs. staff predictions shortly before the awards show.

The 2016 ACM Awards are set to air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 3, beginning at 8PM ET on CBS.

Big Moments in ACM Awards History

How Well Do You Know the ACM Awards?