Emmy Award-winning, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame songwriter Hugh Prestwood is a native of El Paso, Texas and a graduate of the University of Texas El Paso. He has been writing hits for three decades. He was discovered in 1978 by Judy Collins, who gave him his first hit (Hard Times for Lovers), and subsequently recorded five more of his songs.
Prestwood has penned #1 hits for Randy Travis ("Hard Rock Bottom Of Your Heart"), Trisha Yearwood ("The Song Remembers When"), Michael Johnson ("The Moon Is Still Over Her Shoulder"), Shenandoah ("Ghost In This House"), Crystal Gayle ("The Sound Of Goodbye"), and Collin Raye ("On The Verge"). He has also composed hits for Highway 101 ("Bing Bang Boom"), Anne Murray ("Feed This Fire"), Michael Johnson ("That's That"), Ty England ("Smoke In Her Eyes"), and Kathy Mattea ("Asking Us To Dance"). Other artists who have recorded his songs include Conway Twitty, Lee Greenwood, Don Williams, Jackie De Shannon, Maura O'Connell, Tanya Tucker, The Judds, Jimmy Buffett, James Taylor, Jerry Douglas, and Alison Krauss.
In 1991 Prestwood was honored at the annual BMI Awards with the 23rd Robert J. Burton Song Of The Year award for "Hard Rock Bottom Of Your Heart". He was also picked by Billboard Magazine as the #2 country songwriter of that year.
Prestwood made his recording debut on RCA records in 1993 with the album "Signatures 3," featuring five of Nashville's top writers doing their own songs.
In 1994 Prestwood won a Prime Time Emmy Award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement In Music And Lyrics" for his composition, "The Song Remembers When," featured in the Disney special, "Trisha Yearwood - The Song Remembers When". The song was also nominated for a CableACE Award for Best Original Song, and was voted Song Of The Year by members of the Nashville Songwriters Association (NSAI).
In 1997 his song "On The Verge" was listed by Billboard magazine as the 4th biggest country hit of the year.
In 2001 he joined Billy Dean, Marcus Hummon, Bob DiPiero, Gary Nicholson, and Stephen Allen Davis on Nashville Undergound’s Sampler II CD.
Three of Prestwood's songs have been nominated for Grammys in the "Best Performance" category:
"Sound Of Goodbye" performed by Crystal Gayle.
"Hard Rock Bottom Of Your Heart" performed by Randy Travis.
"Ghost In This House" performed by Shenandoah.
In 2006, along with Jimmy Buffett and Jim Weatherly, Prestwood was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters’ Hall of Fame.
Prestwood currently resides in Lincoln, NE with his wife Judy, who is from there and a graduate of the University of Nebraska. For over 20 years he taught Advanced Songwriting at Manhattan’s The New School.