Monte Warden won his first of a dozen Austin Music Awards when he was just 15 years old for Best New Band, honoring his rockabilly trio Whoa Trigger!.  Warden rode the buzz of that band into his next project – leading (as well as writing all the material for) the even more popular and highly influential, The Wagoneers (which Chet Flippo described as ‘The greatest Honky-Tonk band that ever was’), which scored a major-label deal with A&M Records after performing at the very 1st SXSW.  The Wagoneers’ Stout and High debut was released to worldwide critical acclaim and is widely considered one of the best and most influential country albums of the 80s.  His 1994 self-titled solo debut was named one of the 100 best US albums of the 20^th Century by NME.  In addition to his success with The Wagoneers on A&M Records, Warden has been signed to RCA, Watermelon, and Asylum/Warner Records. He has appeared in numerous top-ten music videos and television shows, including multiple appearances on Austin City Limits and The Grand Ol’ Opry .

Monte Warden and The Dangerous Few have made a timeless classic, with original songs that sound like standards.  The quintet mixes jazz, jump, blues, country, gospel, and 40s pop together into the best batch of nightclub gumbo I’ve heard in years. — Radney Foster

The new album is “Jackpot!” by his band Monte Warden and The Dangerous Few, which is a monumental achievement. I’m hard-pressed to think of a record that so effortlessly and pleasurably blends so many different musical styles. Jazz, bossa nova, country swing, gospeI — I swear there’s even a… polka?

It’s quite the musical evolution from The Wagoneers because The Dangerous Few is essentially a jazz band, and an incredibly talented one at that. Brent Wilson, The Wags’ incredibly tasty guitar player, is also in the Few, and it appears he also has a shocking talent for the stand-up bass, which is remarkable considering it’s a far different instrument than his native Stratocaster. Mas Palermo, longtime drummer for the Wags and expert producer, is also on the skins here. Rounding out the usual suspects are horn player Erik Telford and keyboardist Nick Litterski, both of whom bless the album with wonderful hooks and melodies that weave in and out of the vocal line, but somehow neither man manages to overplay.

Warden’s biggest commercial success has been as a multi-million selling songwriter, landing cuts in major film and television shows, singles on five separate Billboard charts, as well as over one hundred major-label cuts by artists like George Strait, Josh Turner, Carrie Underwood, George Jones, Patty Loveless, Asleep At The Wheel, Kelly Willis, Josh Abbott Band, and Travis Tritt, to name a few. Warden co-wrote Strait’s smash-hit, “Desperately”, and in the fall of 2005, the song earned him his first BMI Award for success in the country field.  In March 2007, Warden was awarded the prestigious BMI ‘Million-Air’ Award for “Desperately”, signifying over 1 million radio performances.

Warden is a rare two-time member of The Texas Music Hall of Fame, both as a solo artist and as a member of The Wagoneers. The Wagoneers reunited in 2012 and continue to record and perform regularly.

In 2017, he announced his new Americana project, Monte Warden and The Dangerous Few, a universally critically-acclaimed project of all-original material showcasing Warden’s writing and vocals in the Jazz / Traditional Pop genre that Paste Magazine dubbed ‘The Great Americana Songbook’, while noting ‘Warden has created a sound that never before existed’. KUTX opined, ‘Imagine Gene Vincent singing Cole Porter’. The 2020 debut album received world-wide critical praise as well as first-ballot Grammy nominations in six categories, including “Best Americana Album” and the highly-coveted “Album of the Year”. The combo enjoys a monthly SRO residency at Austin’s most prestigious nightclub, Parker Jazz Club.

From 2020-2023, Warden hosted the hugely successful livestream, The Monte Warden Feel Good Hour, for 156 consecutive weeks.

“Warden has created a sound that never before existed” – Geoffrey Himes 

This is a twangy take on the swinging crooners. Call it the Great Americana Songbook… there’s also more than a touch of mariachi in it, lending a Tex-Mex twist to the Rat Pack sound”– Paste Magazine

“Touchstones emerge in echoes of everything from Herb Alpert to Johnny Mercer , but the sound proves uniquely their own. Impeccably written songs, brilliantly presented”. “Timeless originals”. –Austin Chronicle

“This album – much like Squirrel Nut Zippers – is a pleasant anachronism. It’s a tip of the hat to swinging big bands while incorporating a decent amount of rock and roll.”–Glide

“Imagine Gene Vincent singing Cole Porter and you’ll have an inkling of what to expect.” –KUTX

“A modern groove in old-school Tin Pan Alley songwriting and instrumentation that runs the seam between torch jazz and country.

Masterful writing that is both fluidly jazzy and rootsy in its bare-bones presentation. A stunning debut.” Houston Chronicle

“The music on “Monte Warden and the Dangerous Few” moves with both warmth and an urbane breeziness. An Instant Classic.” – Americana Highways

“If BuddyHolly sang Harold Arlen…As if Sinatra sang the Lefty Frizzell Songbook” – Paste Magazine