Monty Powell

Who is Monty Powell?

Monty Powell is an American country music songwriter best known for collaborating with Keith Urban, and for producing albums by Diamond Rio.

Powell's first songwriting credit was a jingle for an Allstate commercial. After moving to Nashville, Tennessee in the early 1990s, Powell wrote several songs for Diamond Rio, whose lead singer Marty Roe was a roommate of his in college. Other artists who recorded Powell's songs include Tracy Byrd, Chris Cagle, Billy Ray Cyrus, Tim McGraw, Collin Raye, and Restless Heart. One of his first collaborations with Urban was his debut single, "It's a Love Thing", which reached Top 20 in 1999.

Powell won awards for Song, Songwriter, and Publisher of the Year in 2009 from SESAC. He also received a Country Music Association award in 2006 for co-writing Urban's "Tonight I Wanna Cry", and an Album of the Year award in 1994 for collaborating on Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles.