50 Best Country Songs About Grief
Country Tracks That Capture the Weight of Loss
There’s a certain heaviness that settles in when grief hits. Not loud or dramatic, but the kind that sits in the room and rearranges how everything feels. You might be driving past an empty field, staring at a chair no one will sit in again, or lying awake with the light from a muted TV flickering on the wall. Then a song comes on, and it lands hard. It doesn’t rush to cheer you up. It doesn’t tidy anything away. It stays there with you, holding that strange mix of sadness, memory, and the little flashes of beauty that sometimes break through.
Grief has a way of changing the air around you, and some songs catch that exact shift. It can be a fiddle line that stretches out like an old photograph you can’t put down. Or a voice that cracks on one note and takes you with it. The most honest tracks don’t feel like they’re reaching for closure. They sound like they’re walking alongside you, step for step, no matter how uneven the path is. You hear the same weight in pop, rock, country, and R&B songs, but in country especially, there’s often a plainspoken truth that cuts straight through.
The right track can turn into a kind of companion when nothing else fits. It might circle back to the same words again and again, the way your mind keeps replaying certain moments. It might feel raw one day and strangely warm the next. These are the kinds of songs that carry the silence, the ache, and sometimes even the stubborn little thread of hope that slips in when you least expect it. Here are the best country songs for grief.
Top 10 Grief Country Songs
1. 'He Stopped Loving Her Today'—George Jones
2. 'Go Rest High on That Mountain'—Vince Gill
3. 'Whiskey Lullaby'—Brad Paisley & Alison Krauss
4. 'You Should Be Here'—Cole Swindell
5. 'I Drive Your Truck'—Lee Brice
6. 'If You're Reading This'—Tim McGraw
7. 'Drink a Beer'—Luke Bryan
8. 'If I Die Young'—The Band Perry
9. 'One More Day'—Diamond Rio
10. 'Holes in the Floor of Heaven'—Steve Wariner
More Country Songs About Loss #11—20
11. 'Sissy's Song'—Alan Jackson
12. 'Over You'—Miranda Lambert
13. 'The Dance'—Garth Brooks
14. 'When I Get Where I'm Going'—Brad Paisley & Dolly Parton
15. 'How Can I Help You Say Goodbye'—Patty Loveless
16. 'Broken Halos'—Chris Stapleton
17. 'If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away'—Justin Moore
18. 'Who You'd Be Today'—Kenny Chesney
19. 'How Do I Live'—LeAnn Rimes
20. 'See You Again'—Carrie Underwood
Sad Country Songs About Loved Ones #21—30
21. 'Concrete Angel'—Martina McBride
22. 'Daddy's Hands'—Holly Dunn
23. 'I Will Always Love You'—Dolly Parton
24. 'What Hurts the Most'—Rascal Flatts
25. 'Temporary Home'—Carrie Underwood
26. 'I'm Not Gonna Miss You'—Glen Campbell
27. 'If Tomorrow Never Comes'—Garth Brooks
28. 'Travelin' Soldier'—The Chicks
29. 'There You'll Be'—Faith Hill
30. 'When I'm Gone'—Joey + Rory
Country Songs About Losing Someone #31—40
31. 'Chiseled in Stone'—Vern Gosdin
32. 'Believe'—Brooks & Dunn
33. 'Hurt'—Johnny Cash
34. 'I Miss My Friend'—Darryl Worley
35. 'The Baby'—Blake Shelton
36. 'Live Like You Were Dying'—Tim McGraw
37. 'A Picture of Me (Without You)'—George Jones
38. 'Sing Me Back Home'—Merle Haggard
39. 'Knoxville Girl'—The Louvin Brothers
40. 'Wish You Were Here'—Mark Wills
Country Music About Grief and Loss #41—50
41. 'Don't Blink'—Kenny Chesney
42. 'Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain'—Willie Nelson
43. 'If I Had Only Known'—Reba McEntire
44. 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry'—Hank Williams
45. 'In Color'—Jamey Johnson
46. 'Ode to Billie Joe'—Bobbie Gentry
47. 'Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground'—Willie Nelson
48. 'The Long Black Veil'—Lefty Frizzell
49. 'Goodbye Earl'—The Chicks
50. 'I Called Mama'—Tim McGraw
© 2025 Carson McQueen
