Discussion: Favorite Driving Songs

I’m in an even more upbeat mood than usual today, having just purchased a new car for the first time.   I was twenty when I bought my first used car down in Tennessee.   I got nearly nine good years out of the thing, adding 80,000 miles to the odometer along the way.  It’s very cool to have new wheels, especially since my old getup was rattling so loud it sounded like I was dragging “Just Married” cans behind it.

So tonight seems the perfect night to ask about driving songs.   I love a good road song.  Some of my favorites include Lee Roy Parnell’s “On the Road”, and K.T. Oslin’s “Hey Bobby.”  The former captures how hitting the road can help you let go of the past that’s holding you down. The latter is about taking your love interest for a ride in your new car, driving out to the country and getting busy.   If that plotline sounds familiar, it’s because Brad Paisley’s “Mud on the Tires” was cribbed from it.

What are your favorite driving songs?

40 Comments

  1. My favorites are “On The Road Again” (the only Willie song I liked when I was a kid) and “King Of The Road” by Roger Miller.

    Congratulations on the new car!

  2. “A Little Gasoline” by Terri Clark and “A Little Past Little Rock” spring to mind. Both leaving songs- two very different moods. (And two amazing singers!)

  3. “On a Bus to St. Cloud, penned by Gretchen Peters and sung by Trisha Yearwood (although Jimmy Lefavre had a fine version as well).

    The bridge is one of the most haunting musical moments I’ve ever heard: You chase me like a shadow/And you haunt me like a ghost/And I hate you some, and I love you some/But I miss you most

    For something a little less sad, “Drive” by Alan Jackson.

  4. yay 4 ur new car!

    one of my favs would be Reba’s “I’d Rather Ride Around With You”
    and “Get Out Of This Town” by Carrie Underwood.

    my favorite songs for driving would include:
    -“This Kiss” by Faith Hill
    -“Blessed” by Martina McBride
    -“Perfect,” “A Real Fine Place To Start,” “I Keep Looking,” and “Suds In The Bucket” by Sara Evans
    -“Any Man Of Mine” by Shania Twain
    -“No One Else On Earth” by Wynonna
    and some others ^^
    (I’m gonna set a driving playlist soon on my Ipod! :D)

  5. Also, cribbing is an awfully strong term to use for “Mud of the Tires”. They have similarities in theme and content, but are distinct enough to be considered different songs. It’s only natural for certain concepts in country music to repeat themselves.

  6. WILLING–Linda Ronstadt
    I’M MOVIN’ ON–Elvis Presley
    GENTLE ON MY MIND–Glen Campbell
    COUNTRY ROAD–James Taylor
    MIDNIGHT FLYER–The Eagles
    ROSE OF CIMARRON–Poco
    DRIVE MY CAR–The Beatles

    As usual, I go uncoventional. But just to satisfy anyone with a taste for classic 60s C&W “road” songs, here are two that I’m surprised haven’t been mentioned:

    GIRL ON THE BILLBOARD–Del Reeves
    SIX DAYS ON THE ROAD–Dave Dudley

  7. My favorite driving song of all time is Springsteen’s “Born to Run.” I just get going and before I know it I’m going 25 miles over the limit. A close second is “Two Pink Lines” by Eric Church. Don’t as me why. Everytime I get in the car I want to hear it.

  8. Six Days on The Road – Dave Dudley
    East Bound and Down – Jerry Reed Hubbard
    Rambling Fever – Merle Haggard
    8 More Miles To Louisville – Grandpa Jones
    Midnigth Flyer – The Osborne Brothers

  9. Here’s a Texas flavored list:

    Diesel Driving Daddy – Aaron Watson (featuring Dale Watson)
    Cars, Trucks And Me – Adam Hood (we’ll call him an honorary Texan for the sake of this list)
    1970 Monte Carlo – Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash
    Call of the Road – Brandon Jenkins
    Back Roads – Brandon Rhyder
    Homesick Gypsy – Chris Knight
    I’ll Make It Home – Drew Kennedy
    The Rock Island Line – Eleven Hundred Springs
    L.A. Freeway – Guy Clark
    Down The Road Tonight – Hayes Carll
    Drive You Off My Mind – Josh Grider
    The Truck Song – Lyle Lovett
    The Road Goes On Forever – Robert Earl Keen
    Down the Road – Rodney Hayden
    Southside of Heaven – Ryan Bingham

  10. To me, great driving music are songs that I can rock out to and sing at the top of my lungs…so here are a few of my faves.

    “Days Go By” – Keith Urban
    “Down in Mississippi” – Sugarland
    “Flat on the Floor” – Carrie Underwood
    “Lookin for a Good Time” – Lady A
    “Life is a Highway” – Rascal Flatts
    “Livin’ on a Prayer” – Bon Jovi

    Those are just a few I have on my road trip playlist on my ipod…there’s too many to post but there’s the first few haha

  11. THAT’S a great list Brody! Glad to see someone here on the same page as me. Some of my favorite artists. I’ll add…
    Good Luck…Good Truckin’ – Dale Watson
    Whevever Kindness Fails – Joe Ely (version)

    Did anyone notice Wayne pronounces Route “Rout” while Asleep at The Wheel, and Nat, pronounce it “Root”? All I know it’s some great travelin’ music! Wayne “The Train” has a lot of it!

  12. Some of my favorites –

    Good Time – Jessica Andrews
    Break Down Here – Julie Roberts
    If I Dont Make It Back – Tracy Lawrence
    She Just Might Have Her Radio On – Trent Tomlinson
    Ride – Shelly Fairchild

    I agree with a “A Little Gasoline” by Terri Clark.

    I am sure that there are others but I cannot think of them right now.

  13. “Four On The Floor” by Lee Brice is a good driving song. “Long Gone” by Lady A.

    “Renegades Rebels and Rogues” – Tracy Lawrence
    “Drive” – Jeffrey Steele
    “Tennessee” – Marcel

    There are a lot of good songs that work for driving. I’ve had my HHR since April and it’s still fun to drive, even if someone brushed it in a parking lot and took paint off my bumper.

  14. Some of my favorites:

    A Little Gasoline – Terri Clark (Chris D. beat me to this one)
    Lonely Alone – Reba
    Three Mississippi – Terri Clark
    You Win My Love – Shania Twain (you just have to ‘go faster, faster’ if Shania says so)
    and of course Sleep While I Drive – the Trisha Yearwood recording of it

  15. Best Driving songs would have to be (IMO):

    Days Go By – Keith Urban
    You Win My Love – Shania Twain
    6 Days on The Road – Swayer Brown
    Girl on The Billboard – The Road Hammers
    Mud On The Tires – Brad Paisley

  16. Some I like are:

    Free And Easy – Dierks Bently
    Wide Open Spaces – Dixie Chicks
    Crazy Dreams – Carrie Underwood
    Independance Day – Martina McBride
    Live Like You Were Dying – Tim McGraw

  17. “455 Rocket” – Kathy Mattea
    “Smoky Mountain Rain” – Ronnie Milsap
    “Get Out Of This Town” – Carrie Underwood (hopefully her next single
    “I’ve been Everywhere” – Johnny Cash

  18. Giving into recentism to name a song that is mostly about a life’s journey but has lyrics referencing life on the road: “The Long Way Around” by the Dixie Chicks.

  19. BORN TO BE WILD–Steppenwolf
    ROLL DOWN THE HIGHWAY–Bachman/Turner Overdrive

    and…

    VIVA LAS VEGAS–Elvis Presley*

    *-or as it is occasionally known as, “Viva Lost Wages” (LOL)

  20. ON THE ROAD AGAIN – Willie Nelson
    WHO WOULDN’T WANNA BE ME – Keith Urban
    DAYS GO BY – Keith Urban
    SOMEBODY LIKE YOU – Keith Urban
    Anything by Elvis, I also love BORN TO BE WILD that Erik listed.
    UP – Shania Twain
    HONEY I’M HOME – Shania Twain
    Ah, there’s too many I like to make a good list!

  21. even though the title may not suggest it, but “anything for love” by james house is one of the best songs coming up in the first few minutes of road-trip. in the same category is steve earle’s “guitar town” and wade hayes’ “the day she left tulsa” (… in a chevy in the pouring down rain) and jo dee messina’s “hearts carolina, tails california.

    tany tucker’s “riding out the heartache”, trisha yearwood’s “the song remembers when” and chely wright’s “she went out for cigarettes” also cover interesting aspects of road-trips.

    my absolute favorite album to ride along to on a mountain-road is dwight yoakam’s “tomorrow’s sounds today”. not one song about driving as such, but the music sounds like going from one flowing bend to the next and the next and ….

    a v8, a beautiful stretch of road and this cd make a threesome that’s quite tough to beat.

  22. The song’s not about driving but it made me speed one day and get a ticket…. “The Boys Are Back In Town” from Patty Loveless.

    Also, “Modern Day Bonnie And Clyde” from Travis Tritt has a good pedal-down groove to it

  23. CCR: “Up Around the Bend”
    The Band: “The Load”
    Jackson Brown: “Running On Empty”
    Johnny Cash: “One Piece At a Time”
    Sara Evans: “Missin’ Missouri”
    Billy Currington: “Good Directions”
    Michael Martin Murphey: “Carolina In the Pines”
    Mary Chapin Carpenter: “Down at the Twist and Shout”
    Jerry Reed: “East Bound and Down”
    Grateful Dead: “Truckin'”

  24. If I’m gonna listen to “Life’s A Highway” it’s gonna be the Tom Cochrane original. Same goes for Mark Cohn’s “Walking In Memphis.” I’d rather listen to his original than listen to the remake from Lonestar, though they did an OK job w/it. That song works for a ‘driving’ song too.

    Here’s another Jeffrey Steele song that fits a driving theme “Running’s What I’m Running From.”

  25. Matt, I’m in total agreement with you on both of those songs. It amazes me that RF took out the one country element of “Life Is A Highway”, the harmonica.

  26. Cry On The SHoulder of the Road- Martina McBride
    A Little Past Little Rock- Lee Ann Womack
    On The Road Again- Waylon & Willie
    Me and Bobby McGee- anyone who sings it!

  27. No one noticed that about Wayne Hancock? How about this…In the video 455 Rocket by Mattea (written by Gillian welch and David Rawlings btw) The song is about an Oldsmobile, but at the very end of the video her and the band are in a Buick. A couple of observations.

  28. My I-pod driving playlist is…

    Turn The Page-Bob Seager
    Stairway To Heaven – Led Zeppelin
    Wipe That Smile Off Your Face – Our Lady Peace
    You Know You’re Right – Nirvana
    Sympathy For The Devil – Stones or GNR
    Ride On – AC/DC
    Love, Reign O’er Me – The Who
    Yellow Ledbetter – Pearl Jam
    Worthless – One Less Reason
    Alcoholin’ Ass – Hell Yeah
    Don’t Drink The Water – DMB
    Lateralus and Sober – Tool
    Money – Pink Floyd
    The Entire Yourself Or Someone Like You CD by Matchbox 20
    11 A.M.- Incubus
    Change – Blind Melon
    Kiss My Country Ass – Rhett Atkins
    and Living On The Edge – Aerosmith

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