50 Best Country Songs About San Diego

Best Country Music on San Diego

There is a strange type of pull when San Diego comes up in a country track. It is not the tumbleweed kind of West, not the dusty plains, but something that feels like a coast stretching too far to hold in one glance. The name alone tilts the song into a mood that mixes sunshine, longing, and a little bit of running from whatever came before. Some songs land squarely in that setting, while others wander nearby but carry the same air, which is why they still fit here. That’s the thing with music tied to a city—it rarely stays literal.

San Diego slips into lyrics like shorthand for escape, heartbreak, or the kind of freedom that feels temporary but necessary. These tracks are not the polished postcard versions of the city, they come across in fragments: a motel room, a shoreline night, a drive that blurs state lines. They carry the restless feeling of someone packing up quick or looking over their shoulder as much as they carry the warmth of palm trees. You can hear it across pop, rock, country, and R&B songs, but the country ones bring out that mix of grit and vulnerability that hits differently.

What makes these cuts stick is not the neat picture of the city but the way San Diego becomes a character in the background. Sometimes it is wide open and golden, sometimes it is a hiding place, sometimes it is where someone finally says the thing they had been holding in. It is messy, uneven, and oddly specific, which is exactly why it works. Here are the best country songs tied to San Diego.

1. 'San Diego' by Charlie Walker

2. 'Somewhere San Diego' by The Swon Brothers

3. 'Hey California' by Jon Pardi

4. 'No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems' by Kenny Chesney

5. 'Toes' by Zac Brown Band

6. 'Beachin'' by Jake Owen

7. 'Take Me to the River' by Eric Church

8. 'California' by Big & Rich

9. 'Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset' by Luke Bryan

10. 'San Diego Serenade' by Tom Waits

11. 'California' by Jamey Johnson

12. 'Margaritaville' by Jimmy Buffett

13. 'Knee Deep' by Zac Brown Band and Jimmy Buffett

14. 'Redneck Yacht Club' by Craig Morgan

15. 'Soak Up the Sun' by Sheryl Crow

16. 'California Girls' by Gretchen Wilson

17. 'Somewhere On A Beach' by Dierks Bentley

18. 'Sunshine and Summertime' by Faith Hill

19. 'Five O'Clock Somewhere' by Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett

20. 'Wagon Wheel' by Old Crow Medicine Show

21. 'A Pirate Looks at Forty' by Jimmy Buffett

22. 'Pontoon' by Little Big Town

23. 'Barefoot Blue Jean Night' by Jake Owen

24. 'Cruise' by Florida Georgia Line

25. 'Save It for a Sunny Day' by Kenny Chesney

26. 'Southbound' by Carrie Underwood

27. 'Beach Town' by Chase Rice

28. 'Island Song' by Zac Brown Band

29. 'Made by the Water' by Brian Kelley

30. 'The Seashores of Old Mexico' by George Strait

31. 'California Dreaming' by The Mamas & The Papas

32. 'Streets of Bakersfield' by Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens

33. 'Life's a Dance' by John Michael Montgomery

34. 'Golden California' by The Marshall Tucker Band

35. 'San Quentin' by Johnny Cash

36. 'My Town' by Buck-O-Nine

37. 'California Girls' by the Beach Boys

38. 'Leaving California' by David Nail

39. 'California Sunshine' by The Mamas & The Papas

40. 'Down in the Valley' by The Head and the Heart

41. 'Coastal Cowboy' by The Last Bandoleros

42. 'Waves on a Sunset' by Tucker Wetmore

43. 'Sun Daze' by Florida Georgia Line

44. 'Vacation' by Thomas Rhett

45. 'California' by Chuck Berry

46. 'California' by Cass McCombs

47. 'When the Sun Goes Down' by Kenny Chesney and Uncle Kracker

48. 'Pontoon' by Little Big Town

49. 'Barefootin'' by The Avett Brothers

50. 'Southern California' by Ace of Base