50 Best Country Songs About Jesse James
Best Country Songs on Jesse James
There’s a certain pull to songs that circle around Jesse James. Not clean hero worship, not straight villain talk, but something tangled in the in-between. His name carries dust and gunpowder, old ballads and outlaw tales passed along until they start blending fact with performance. The sound of his legend keeps moving through country music, but it also shows up across pop, rock, country, and R&B songs when artists want to tap into that restless rebel energy. Not every track sticks to the man himself, though. Some are looser takes, catching the same kind of grit or defiance that his story gives off, which still fits the theme.
The outlaw in these songs comes through in different ways. Sometimes it’s a ballad that feels like it could’ve been sung on a front porch with no mic, sometimes it’s cranked up like a barroom anthem with beer bottles rattling on the counter. A few tracks play him up as a folk legend, nearly untouchable, while others dig into the darker corners, reminding you of the blood spilled behind the myth. You can hear the weight of history in some voices, like they’re carrying old verses in their throat, and in others it’s more about the idea of rebellion that Jesse James stands in for.
What makes these tracks land is that they don’t smooth things out. They hold the rough edges, the blurred line between story and memory, and let that hang in the air. The result is a mix that feels lived-in and complicated, the way legends always do when they keep traveling through time. Here are the best country songs on Jesse James.
Top 10 Outlaw Country Songs
1. 'Jesse James' by Clay Walker
2. 'Just Like Jesse James' by Cher
3. 'Frank and Jesse James' by Warren Zevon
4. 'The Ballad of Jesse James' by Bruce Springsteen
5. 'The Devil's Right Hand' by Steve Earle
6. 'Wanted Dead or Alive' by Bon Jovi
7. 'Me and My Uncle' by Grateful Dead
8. 'Desperado' by Eagles
9. 'Pancho and Lefty' by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson
10. 'The Outlaw's' by J. C. Macks
Country Songs About Rebels #11—20
11. 'Mama Tried' by Merle Haggard
12. 'Whiskey River' by Willie Nelson
13. 'I'm the Only Hell (Mama Ever Raised)' by Johnny Paycheck
14. 'Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out of Hand' by Waylon Jennings
15. 'Family Tradition' by Hank Williams Jr.
16. 'The Highwayman' by The Highwaymen
17. 'High Cost of Living' by Jamey Johnson
18. 'Ain't Living Long Like This' by Waylon Jennings
19. 'Long Haired Country Boy' by Charlie Daniels
20. 'Copperhead Road' by Steve Earle
Outlaw Music and Country Tracks #21—30
21. 'You Never Can Tell' by Jesse James and his gang
22. 'Wanted' by Jessie James
23. 'The Ballad of Billy the Kid' by Billy Joel
24. 'Billy the Kid' by Marty Robbins
25. 'The Ballad of Davy Crockett' by Tennessee Ernie Ford
26. 'I Hung My Head' by Johnny Cash
27. 'Folsom Prison Blues' by Johnny Cash
28. 'A Gunfighter's Last Sunset' by Marty Robbins
29. 'El Paso' by Marty Robbins
30. 'The Legend of Jesse James' by The Pogues
Songs About Wild West Figures #31—40
31. 'The Coward Robert Ford' by The Assassination of Jesse James Soundtrack
32. 'Gunslinger's Glory' by Dead South
33. 'Cocaine Blues' by Johnny Cash
34. 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald' by Gordon Lightfoot
35. 'The Ballad of Ira Hayes' by Johnny Cash
36. 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' by Charlie Daniels Band
37. 'Big Iron' by Marty Robbins
38. 'Run in the Night' by John Rush
39. 'The Long Black Veil' by Lefty Frizzell
40. 'Wanted' by Hunter Hayes
More Cowboy and Outlaw Songs #41—50
41. 'Renegades, Rebels and Rogues' by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
42. 'Wanted Man' by Johnny Cash
43. 'The Hard Blues' by Julius Hemphill
44. 'Band of Jesse James' by Mary McCaslin
45. 'A Train Robbery' by Paul Kennerley
46. 'I've Always Been Crazy' by Waylon Jennings
47. 'Gonna Need a Grave' by Urban Country
48. 'The Road Goes On Forever' by Robert Earl Keen
49. 'Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young' by Faron Young
50. 'Just Like Jesse James' by Jessie James Decker
© 2025 Carson McQueen
