50 Best Country Songs About Floating Down the River
Country music for drifting down the river
There’s a particular mood that comes with a slow ride on the water. You’re half sunk into an old tube or the side of a canoe, sun hitting hard, a cooler leaning against your leg. Somewhere out there, the shoreline drifts by at its own lazy pace, and the right song wraps around it like it was made for this exact stretch of afternoon. It’s not high adventure and it’s not a standstill either. The hum of conversation slips into silence, broken up by a guitar line or a chorus that feels like it belongs to the river more than to the radio.
River days have their own rhythm. Sometimes it’s rowdy with laughter bouncing off the banks, sometimes it’s quiet enough to hear the paddle dip and pull through the current. The music you put on matters because it steers the whole thing without ever feeling like it’s in control. The right track can make a floating beer taste colder or turn a breeze into something that feels like it’s carrying a story. You might think of pop, rock, country, and R&B songs that work for warm weather, but there’s something different when it’s a river that’s carrying you instead of a road or a sidewalk.
Not every trip on the water stays picture perfect. There are tangled fishing lines, someone’s speaker dying halfway through, and that moment when the sky changes without warning. Still, there’s a strange comfort in a song that leans into the drift and doesn’t try to pull you anywhere faster than the current will take you. These tracks have that unhurried pulse and that easy sway, the kind you can float with until the sun slips behind the trees. Here are the best country songs for floating down the river.
Top 10 River Country Songs
1. 'Chattahoochee'—Alan Jackson
2. 'The River'—Garth Brooks
3. 'River Bank'—Brad Paisley
4. 'Fishin' in the Dark'—Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
5. 'Whiskey River'—Willie Nelson
6. 'Tennessee River'—Alabama
7. 'Big River'—Johnny Cash
8. 'River of Love'—George Strait
9. 'Float'—Tim & The Glory Boys
10. 'Down to the River to Pray'—Alison Krauss & Union Station
River Country Music #11—20
11. 'Roll on Columbia'—Country Joe McDonald
12. 'Let's All Go Down to the River'—Johnny Paycheck
13. 'Between the River and Me'—Tim McGraw
14. 'Gonna Take a Lot of River'—The Oak Ridge Boys
15. 'River of Happiness'—Dolly Parton
16. 'Green River'—Creedence Clearwater Revival
17. 'Proud Mary'—Creedence Clearwater Revival
18. 'Black Water'—The Doobie Brothers
19. 'Sweet Summer Loving'—Dolly Parton
20. 'Water'—Brad Paisley
Popular Country River Songs #21—30
21. 'Don't Go Near the Water'—Johnny Cash
22. 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'—John Denver
23. 'I Saw God Today'—George Strait
24. 'The River'—Bruce Springsteen
25. 'River of Dreams'—Billy Joel
26. 'Moon River'—Andy Williams
27. 'Floating Down The River'—Peter James Band
28. 'Along for the Ride'—Okee Dokee Brothers
29. 'River Stay 'Way from My Door'—Frank Sinatra
30. 'Shanty Boat Blues'—Jimmy Murphy
Country River-Themed Music #31—40
31. 'Mississippi River Blues'—Big Bill Broonzy
32. 'Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man'—Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty
33. 'Old Man River'—The Beach Boys
34. 'Watching the River Flow'—Leon Russell
35. 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia'—The Charlie Daniels Band
36. 'A Feather's Not a Bird'—Rosanne Cash
37. 'Roll on Mississippi'—The Strangeloves
38. 'The Humbling River'—Puscifer
39. 'Rivers and Roads'—The Head and the Heart
40. 'River of Deceit'—Mad Season
Music About Rivers in Country #41—50
41. 'Boat on the River'—Styx
42. 'Mississippi Moon'—Greg Brown
43. 'Take Me to the River'—Al Green
44. 'The River'—Emeli Sande
45. 'Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay'—Otis Redding
46. 'River'—Joni Mitchell
47. 'Miss the Mississippi and You'—Jimmie Rodgers
48. 'The River Is Wild'—The Killers
49. 'Lazy River'—Louis Armstrong
50. 'How Deep Is the River'—Mason Jennings
© 2025 Carson McQueen
