Born and raised in the town of Satsuma, AL, Monty Criswell started playing the piano at age six and guitar at age ten. He was writing songs at twelve and cutting demos at sixteen. After graduating high school in Mobile, Alabama, Monty attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa during the week while pounding the pavement in Nashville the rest of the time trying to find publishers who would listen to his songs. He kept up with his studies, graduating cum laude in 1990 with a B.A. degree in American Studies and a minor in English, earning three scholarships in the process.
In 1993, after passing on an acceptance to law school, Monty signed with Ronnie Milsap’s publishing company Milsap/Galbraith. In the summer of 1995, Monty became part of the songwriting roster at Hamstein Music Group, writing for them for five years. With Hamstein, Monty had cuts by such artists as Mark Wills, John Michael Montgomery, Mindy McCready, Rhett Akins, Tracy Lawrence, Ricky Van Shelton, Sammy Kershaw, Andy Griggs and David Ball. During his tenure at Hamstein, Monty also co-wrote “Daddy Whipped the Devil with the Bible Belt,” a #1 Gospel hit for artist Ken Holloway.
In April of 2000, four-time BMI writer of the year, Tom Shapiro, signed Monty to Wenonga Music, a co-venture with Sony ATV/Tree. While writing for Shapiro and Sony, Monty had songs recorded by artists such as Josh Turner, Neal McCoy, Tanya Tucker, Chris Cagle, Jamie O’Neal, Hal Ketchum, Gene Watson, Erika Jo, Blaine Larsen, Trace Adkins, James Otto and Gretchen Wilson. Monty also had a hit with his fourth Mark Wills cut “Loving Every Minute” which received a BMI award for being one of the fifty most performed country songs of 2002.
In 2005, Monty signed with Scott Hendricks’ publishing company Big Tractor Music. While at Big Tractor, Monty had cuts by such artists as Jeff Bates, Mark Wills, Chris Young, Chris Cagle, Gene Watson, Gretchen Wilson, James Wesley, Craig Morgan, Trace Adkins, Darius Rucker, Bucky Covington and George Strait. Monty’s Craig Morgan song “Tough” was a top ten record at Country radio in 2007 and received a BMI award in 2008. His George Strait single, “I Saw God Today,” debuted at #19 on R&R and became Strait’s 56th number one, the most by any artist in any genre of music. “I Saw God Today” was a two week #1 in the spring of 2008 in both Billboard and R&R magazine and was nominated for CMA and ACM Song of The Year, winning the CMA single of the year award. “I Saw God Today” also received a Grammy nomination for Country Song of The Year as well as a Dove nomination for Country Recorded Song of The Year and was voted one of NSAI‘s “Top Ten Songs I Wish I‘d Written.” Additionally, “I Saw God Today” has received a BMI Award and a BMI Million Air Award. Monty had the lead off single “Muddy Water,” for the Trace Adkins album entitled X which also includes Monty’s song “Hauling One Thing,” his sixth of double digit Trace Adkins cuts.
Monty moved over to write for Sony/ATV/Tree in the summer of 2009 and spent 8 successful years with Sony. Monty’s cuts while at Sony include John Rich, Kristen Kelly, Michael Ray, Frankie Ballard, Josh Turner, Kenny Chesney (duet with Willie Nelson), Rodney Atkins, Justin Moore (Duet with Brantley Gilbert), Jake Owen, Love and Theft, Daryle Singletary, Mark Chestnutt, Scotty McCreery, Drew Baldridge, Jon Langston, George Strait and multiple cuts on Joe Nichols, Darius Rucker, Chris Young, Craig Morgan, Eric Church and Trace Adkins including the Trace single “Just Fishin’” for which Monty received his second Grammy nomination for Country Song of The Year. “Just Fishin’” was a Billboard top ten record in the Fall of 2011 and received both a BMI Award and a BMI Million Air Award in 2012. “Just Fishin’” also received a Song of The Year nod from the American Country Music Awards and was named one of NSAI’s “Top Ten Songs I Wish I’d Written.” Monty’s consistency showed up again when his Top Ten Eric Church single “Like Jesus Does” also received the same award from NSAI as well as a BMI award in 2014. In the winter of 2014, Monty had the Christmas single off of the first ever Darius Rucker Christmas album with a song entitled “What God Wants For Christmas,” and he continued his single-streak in 2015 through 2017 with his Joe Nichols’ cut “Freaks Like Me,” the Drake White single “Makin’ Me Look Good Again” and the top 3 XM The Highway Adam Doleac single “Whiskey’s Fine.”
In 2018 while in the process of moving to Spirit/Fluid Music Revolution, Monty scored another #1 with the massive hit “Five More Minutes” on Scotty McCreery. “Five More Minutes” went on to be made into two Hallmark Christmas movies and to become one of the top ten most globally used songs on social media. The song received an NSAI and BMI award and has since been certified triple platinum.
In 2020, Monty had a #1 with the Eric Church and Casey Beathard co-written single “Hell of A View.” In 2021, “Hell of A View” received a CMA nomination for song and single of the year and won the Music Row Magazine Song of the Year award. The song also received an NSAI and BMI award and has certified double platinum.
In 2022, Monty had the lead single on Broken Bow artist Frank Ray. “Country’d Look Good On You” made it to #15 on the charts over the course of an amazing 55 week run. In November of 2023, it received a BMI award for one of the year’s 50 most performed songs at country radio. During that same year, Monty had two top tens in Canada on Canadian country star Tim Hicks: “Whiskey Does” and “Dodge Out Of Hell.” Monty, along with “Whiskey Does” co-writers Deric Ruttan and Tim Hicks was nominated for the 2022 Canadian CMA Songwriters of the Year.
In May of 2023, Monty’s song “Handle On You,” co-written with MCA artist Parker McCollum, made it to #1. “Handle On You” quickly certified platinum and received a BMI award. In October of that same year, Monty’s Christmas song with Scotty McCreery entitled “Feel Like The Holidays” was released as the Christmas single for Scotty.
Monty re-signed with Spirit/Fluid Music Revolution in March of 2022 and is currently approaching his 7th year with the company. In that time frame, Monty has had songs recorded by Eric Church, Darius Rucker, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Lainey Wilson, Parker McCollum, Frank Ray, Justin Moore, Dan Tyminski, Breland, Scotty McCreery, Trace Adkins, Michael Ray, Tim Montana, Aaron Watson, Granger Smith, Chris Young, Tim Menzies, Jake Worthington, George Strait, Colt Ford, Luna Halo and Tucker Beathard.
Photographer – Erika Goldring
Photographer – John Russell
Monty had 4 songs on Bluegrass great Dan Tyminski’s album God Fearing Heathen which debuted at #1 on the Billboard bluegrass album chart in 2023. Additionally while at Spirit, Monty has had several vocal collaborations of notoriety. Those include three Trace Adkins collaborations. One featuring Luke Bryan and Pit Bull, one featuring Keb Mo’ and Stevie Wonder and a third featuring Snoop Dogg. Also included is a Michael Ray collaboration featuring Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Tim Montana, Kid Rock and Lee Brice.
In December of 2023, Monty scored a Southern Gospel #1 with Grammy nominated Gospel Roots artist Tim Menzies. “Sanding Off The Edges” was the first #1 by Tim as a solo gospel artist.
Monty’s two Lainey Wilson cuts from the CMA , ACM and Grammy award winning Bell Bottom Country album were both featured in the hit show Yellowstone: “Smell Like Smoke” (Season 5, episode 3) and “Hold My Halo” (Season 5, episode 6). “Smell Like Smoke” also went on to be #1 on XM’s The Highway. Monty’s Darius Rucker song “Have A Good Time” could be heard on college football Saturdays as it was featured numerous times as a bumper going to commercial on ABC, The SEC Network and ESPN during the 2023 season.
Monty has been a full-time professional songwriter in Nashville for over 30 years, and over that time, he has accumulated over hundreds of songs cut, numerous BMI and NSAI awards, CMA, ACM, Dove, NMPA and Grammy nominations and Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum certifications. He has had at least one #1 song in each of the last three decades. He is both a CMA and NARAS member and has previously served on the AFTRA-SAG board. He is also a member of the NMPA Gold and Platinum club.
Monty is a colon cancer survivor, and he and his wife DeNesha are proud supporters of the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center and provide financial support as members of Vanderbilt’s Canby Robinson Society.
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