50 Best Country Songs About Illinois
Country Music That Captures the Spirit of Illinois
There’s a certain feeling tied to Illinois that slips into a song without trying. It’s not straight-up pride, not flat nostalgia, but something stuck in between. Cornfields running past your window on a long drive, a half-empty diner somewhere off I-55, the Mississippi at dusk with nothing on the agenda except staying put for a while. A good track catches that space in your head where the Midwest is both quiet and restless, the place you leave and circle back to in the same breath.
Nobody’s painting Illinois like a postcard here. The best country tracks lean into the grit and stillness, the small-town bars with neon beer signs buzzing in the corner, the flat roads that stretch until the sky swallows them. They share space with pop, rock, country, and R&B songs that have touched the state in their own ways, but there’s something about a twang in the chorus or the pull of a steel guitar that hits different when the lyrics namecheck rivers, railways, and old city streets. These aren’t songs that romanticize too hard. They just sit in the moment, taking the weather, the history, and the everyday in stride.
Not every Illinois song sounds the same. Some feel like long summer nights with the windows down, others carry the weight of stories older than the singer telling them. A few have the kind of easy rhythm you hear spilling out of a front porch radio, while others burn slow and heavy, like rain on farmland. They carry pieces of the state in ways that sneak up on you, and that’s what makes them stick. Here are the best country songs about Illinois.
Top 10 Illinois Country Songs
1. 'Illinois'—Brett Eldredge
2. 'Paris, Illinois'—Brett Eldredge
3. 'Cairo, Illinois'—Pokey LaFarge
4. 'The Giant of Illinois'—The Handsome Family
5. 'Johnsburg, Illinois'—Tom Waits
6. 'City of New Orleans'—Steve Goodman
7. 'Illinois Blues'—Skip James
8. 'Plains of Illinois'—Traditional Folk Song
9. 'Sweet Home Chicago'—Robert Johnson
10. 'Chicago'—Frank Sinatra
Illinois Country Music #11—20
11. 'Lake Shore Drive'—Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah
12. 'Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois'—Sufjan Stevens
13. 'Effington'—Ben Folds
14. 'Homecoming'—Kanye West featuring Chris Martin
15. 'The Night Chicago Died'—Paper Lace
16. 'The Legend of the Illinois Enema Bandit'—Frank Zappa
17. 'All the Way'—Eddie Vedder
18. 'Come On! Feel the Illinoise!'—Sufjan Stevens
19. 'Long Hot Summer Day'—John Hartford
20. 'Wanna Be That Song'—Brett Eldredge
Illinois Song Tributes #21—30
21. 'Chicago Bound Blues'—Bessie Smith
22. 'Chicago Breakdown'—Big Maceo Merriweather
23. 'Born in Chicago'—Paul Butterfield
24. 'Home In Chicago'—Dave Riley And Bob Corritore
25. 'Chicago Blues'—Various Artists
26. 'Chicago (That Toddlin' Town)'—Frank Sinatra
27. 'Chicago Girl'—Roger Whittaker
28. 'City of New Orleans'—Arlo Guthrie
29. 'Illinois'—Alison Krauss
30. 'Illinois'—Dan Fogelberg
Music About Illinois #31—40
31. 'Chicago'—Sufjan Stevens
32. 'A Boy Named Sue'—Johnny Cash
33. 'I'll Take You There'—The Staple Singers
34. 'The Way I Am'—Merle Haggard
35. 'God and Guns'—Lynyrd Skynyrd
36. 'Aledo'—Suzy Bogguss
37. 'Champaign, Illinois'—Old 97's
38. 'Lake Marie'—John Prine
39. 'My Kind of Town'—Frank Sinatra
40. 'New To Country'—Bailey Zimmerman
Illinois Country Artists #41—50
41. 'Long Hot Summer Day'—Turnpike Troubadours
42. 'The World's Columbian Exposition'—Sufjan Stevens
43. 'Going Back to Illinois'—The New Lost City Ramblers
44. 'Chicago'—Gene Autry
45. 'The Illinois'—The Everly Brothers
46. 'Hey Loretta'—Loretta Lynn
47. 'Gentle on My Mind'—Glen Campbell
48. 'The House That Built Me'—Miranda Lambert
49. 'Wichita Lineman'—Glen Campbell
50. 'I'm a Ramblin' Man'—Waylon Jennings
© 2025 Carson McQueen
