Songs About the Mississippi River

135 songs reference the Mississippi River · 2466 miles · Rivers & Waterways.

The Mississippi River runs about 2,340 miles from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico below New Orleans, draining 31 states along the way. No single waterway shows up in American song more often. It carries the blues out of the Delta, the riverboat romance of the upper river, and a century of leaving-home and coming-home stories.

These are the songs that name it directly, from gospel to country to hip-hop, mapped to the stretch of river they evoke.

The river as RoadyGoat maps it; pins mark songs placed along it.

The Songs

New Orleans
Casey Donahew Band · LA
“And watched the Mississippi river boats flying down that waterline”
83%
Good Night in New Orleans
Pat Green · LA
“Baptized by the Mississippi”
83%
Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?
Al Hirt · LA
“I'd love to see that old lazy Mississippi”
82%
When the Levee Breaks
Kansas Joe McCoy · MS
“If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break”
25%
Hot ’lanta
38 Special
“I been muggy on the Mighty Miss”
25%
Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man
Conway Twitty · MS
“The Mississippi River can't keep us apart”
25%
Sweet Louisiana
Charlie Daniels
“Back where the Mississippi River flows”
25%
The Battle of New Orleans
Johnny Horton · LA
“down the mighty Mississip”
25%
Tennessee Plates
John Hiatt
“We crossed the Mississippi like an oil slick fire”
25%
Outlaw Blood
Ray Wylie Hubbard · MS
“She spills over like a Mississippi levy”
25%
Iffy
Caamp
“And I’ve crossed that Mississippi at least three times before”
25%
Red River
Guy Clark · LA
“To the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico”
25%
Dialogue #7
Johnny Cash
“You know Carl Perkins and I lived right across the Mississippi River from each other”
25%
You, Me & The River
Chris Janson
“Hey buddy, hey buddy, ain't that Mississippi muddy”
25%
Strong
Tyler Hubbard
“Like the Mississippi River”
25%
Fever for the Bayou
Tab Benoit · LA
“Down the Mississippi river”
25%
North country
Rocket club · MN
“This is where the old man Mississippi”
25%
Memphis Rain
Parker McCollum
“Yeah I run that Mississippi”
25%
Your Little Hoodrat Friend
The Hold Steady
“And washed up in the Mississippi River”
25%
Love You Like That
Canaan Smith
“Slow as the Mississippi”
25%
Mississippi
Train
“But she don't flow to me”
25%
Carolina Line
Seth Mulder & Midnight Run
“Took the Delta Queen on down the river Rode the Mississippi for a while”
25%
Roll on Mississippi
Charley Pride
“Roll on, Mississippi, you make me feel like a child again”
24%
Outrun
The SteelDrivers
“That you can't outrun the Mississippi River in a Shelby GT Ford”
24%
Mississippi
Afroman · MS
“Flowin on the mic like the Mississippi River”
24%
Finer Things In Life
Red Steagall
“Flows like the river to the dry And dusty deserts of my soul”
24%
God Forsaken Town
Reckless Kelly
“Let the mighty Mississippi take this god-forsaken town”
24%
The City Of New Orleans
Johnny Cash
“Through the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea”
24%
Queen Of Memphis
Confederate Railroad
“That old muddy river was my witness”
24%
Up On Cripple Creek (Concert Version)
The Band
“Straight down the Mississippi river to the gulf of Mexico”
23%
Muddy Mississippi
Reba McEntire
“I can hardly see my face in the waters of the muddy Mississippi”
23%
Hey Mississippi
Jackson Dean · MS
“And take me to your river, get me drunk”
23%
Louisiana 1927
Randy Newman · LA
“River rose all day, the river rose all night”
23%
Mississippi River Runnin’ Backwards
Tom Russell
“Mississippi river runnin' backwards”
23%
Mud
Whiskey Myers
“We built this house upon the Mississippi back in 1879”
23%
Basin Street Blues
Bob Wills · LA
“Won't you come along with me (come along with me) To the Mississippi? (to the Mississippi?) We'll take a trip to the land of dreams Steamin’ down the river, down to New Orleans”
23%
Leaving New Orleans
Jordan Davis · LA
“I'll be rolling like the Mississippi leaving New Orleans”
23%
Tennessee’s Not the State I’m In
Joe Ely · TN
“Now there's more to what I'm thinkin' than the Mississippi line”
23%
Storybook
Roger Creager
“Ridin' the mighty Mississipp'”
23%
Déjà Vu (All Over Again)
John Fogerty
“Stumblin' 'cross Big Muddy where the light gets dim”
23%
Miss the Mississippi and You
Nick Shoulders · MS
“Miss the Mississippi and you”
22%
Stevie Nix
The Hold Steady · MN
“She got high for the first time at the camps down by the banks of the Mississippi River”
22%
Memphis, Tennessee
Sammy Kershaw · TN
“Just a half a mile from the Mississippi bridge”
22%
Ol’ Man River
Sam Cooke
“old man river, that old man river, He just keeps rolling along”
22%
The Battle of New Orleans
Johnny Cash · LA
“down the mighty Mississip”
22%
Gulf Coast Girl
Caroline Jones
“‘bove the mighty Mississip”
22%
Lousiana Girl
Johnathan East Band · LA
“Lives on the river where the catfish bite”
22%
Cinco de Mayo in Memphis
Guy Clark · TN
“There's a fog rollin' off the Mississippi”
22%
Darkness on the Delta
Cassandra Wilson · MS
“Where the muddy Mississippi waters flow”
22%
Mississippi Queen
Mountain
“aboard the Mississippi Queen”
21%
Down On The Bayou
William Clark Green · LA
“Do the alligator stomp on top the levee”
21%
Mississippi Moon
John Anderson · MS
“Hot summer night down on the levy”
21%
Rayne, Louisiana
Bruce Robison · LA
“Deep down Mississippi river”
21%
Killing Floor
Dalton Domino
“Just let me sink in my Mississippi”
21%
Memphis Never Falls from Style
Robbie Fulks
“Way down the road from Nashville where the Big Muddy flows”
21%
That’s My Dixie
Riley Green
“as deep and wide and strong as the Mississippi”
21%
Music City USA
Charley Crockett
“Up and down the Mississippi”
21%
This Cowboy’s Hat
Chris LeDoux
“Bulldog the Mississippi, pin its ears down flat”
21%
Basin Street Blues
Louis Armstrong · LA
“Blowing down the river, down to New Orleans”
21%
Ol’ Man River
Paul Robeson
“Colored folks work on de Mississippi”
21%
Oklahoma
Rob Baird
“I don't want to swim the Mississipi”
21%
New Orleans
Gary U.S. Bonds · LA
“Well, down the Mississippi, down to New Orleans”
21%
God Love Her
Toby Keith
“Of the Mississippi mud”
21%
Coast
Shane Smith & the Saints
“And by the Mississippi River”
20%
Better Man
Leon Bridges
“I'd swim the Mississippi river”
20%
Call Of The Wild
Johnny Cash
“we'll navigate that mighty Mississippi”
20%
Louisiana Blue
Radney Foster · LA
“I'm gonna raise the Mississippi river crying over you”
20%
Back Up Off Me
Master P · LA
“Before you find your body floatin' up the Mississippi River”
20%
Gonna Take a Lot of River (Mississippi, Monongahela, Ohio)
The Oak Ridge Boys
“Gonna take the Mississippi, the Monongahela and the Ohio”
20%
Graceland
Paul Simon · MS
“I am following the river down the highway”
20%
Evangeline
Emmylou Harris
“She stands on the banks of the mighty Mississippi”
20%
Turn And Face Memphis
Kristen Kelly · TN
“Drive to the river, where the bridge is burned”
20%
Big River
Johnny Cash
“And the tears that I cried for that woman are gonna flood you, big river”
20%
Mighty Mississippi
The New Christy Minstrels
“ol' man river keeps on callin' me”
20%
Up on cripple creek - 2000 - remaster
The Band
“Straight down the Mississippi river”
19%
Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?
Louis Armstrong · LA
“I'd like to see the lazy Mississippi”
19%
Cadillac Assembly Line
Albert King · MS
“Up and down the Mississippi road”
19%
Must Be My Baby
Guy Clark
“She can make the Mississippi River run the other way”
19%
Los Angeles
Mat Kearney
“I smiled out, over the Mississippi”
19%
Miss’ippi
Nick Shoulders
“Roll along big water, roll low”
19%
Battle of New Orleans
Jimmy Driftwood
“down the mighty Mississip'”
19%
The Humorist
Ha Ha Tonka
“Tell me how deep that river is….say Mark Twain”
17%
Muddy Water
The Seldom Scene
“Mary, grab the baby, river's rising Muddy water’s taking back the land”
16%
When the Levee Breaks
Led Zeppelin
“When the levee breaks”
16%
Down to New Orleans
Vince Gill · LA
“They got my delta queen that makes my heart sing”
15%
Proud Mary
Creedence Clearwater Revival
“Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river”
15%
Make ’Em Say Uhh!
Master P · LA
“The Riverboat Hallelujah”
13%
Change in the Weather
John Fogerty · LA
“The levee's busted, badness comin' through”
12%
Cottonfield Blues
Henry Thomas · MS
“Hey, boat's up the river and she won't come down”
8%
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
Grateful Dead · MS
“Half-step, Mississippi uptown toodeloo”
8%
Louisiana Stick
Jordan Davis · LA
“I'll make you my riverboat queen”
8%
Ain’t No Grave (Gonna Hold This Body Down)
Johnny Cash
“Well, look way down the river”
8%
Save My Soul
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy · LA
“the river of mud”
8%
Hello New Orleans
Robert Earl Keen · LA
“I'll drink the Mississippi dry”
8%
When The Levee Breaks
Buckwheat Zydeco
“If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break”
8%
Rather Be
Riley Green · MS
“Somewhere on the Mississippi-Louisiana state line”
7%
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Joan Baez
“There goes the Robert E. Lee”
7%
In the Bayou
Laine Hardy · LA
“And we'll be rocking on the river”
7%
A Country Boy Can Survive
Hank Williams Jr.
“And the Mississippi River, she's a-goin' dry”
7%
Stuck Between Stations
The Hold Steady
“We all come down and drown in the Mississippi River”
7%
Same Old Song
Riley Green · MS
“knocked down in that Mississippi mud”
7%
Suzannah
Shane Smith & the Saints · LA
“He kissed her on the river boat, they fell in love that night”
6%
Dollars And Dimes
Owen Temple
“Two rivers join together Mississippi and Ohio”
6%
New Orleans
Shane Smith & the Saints · LA
“Take me down, ol' river man”
6%
Riverboat
Faron Young
“On a Mississippi riverboat”
6%
Born By The River
Sexyy Red · MO
“I was born by the river”
6%
Crescent City (Live from Austin City Limits 7/26/1993)
Rosanne Cash · LA
“Down by the river”
6%
Mexico, Tequila and Me
Alan Jackson · LA
“Rolling through the levee's”
6%
Blues For Dixie
Bob Wills
“that ole Mississippi The queen of the delta land”
6%
Whiskeysippi River
Randy Houser
“Down the Whiskeysippi River”
5%
Rose of Alabama
2nd South Carolina String Band · MS
“Away from Mississippi's vale”
5%
River Named Mississippi
Travis Denning
“Long as there's a river named Mississippi”
5%
To The Shining Mountains
Johnny Cash
“On great rafts to the Mississippi”
5%
Surrender
Roger Creager
“Riding the mighty Mississippi”
5%
Mississippi
The Chicks · MS
“I crossed that river just to be where you are”
4%
Intro (Deliverance)
Bubba Sparxxx
“Past the Mississipp' by swimmin the Great Lakes now”
4%
Tennessee Stud
Doc Watson · MS
“We came to Big Muddy, then we forded the flood”
4%
Louisiana Man
The Flying Burrito Brothers · LA
“Got fishin' lines running cross the Louisiana river”
4%
Mississippi Queen
Erin Rae
“Me and my friend, the Mississippi Queen”
4%
Tennessee Stud
Chris LeDoux · MS
“We came to Big Muddy then forded the flood”
4%
Land Of The Navajo
Peter Rowan
“Jack bid the Mississippi River”
4%
Roll Muddy River
The Osborne Brothers
“Roll muddy river, roll on muddy river, roll on”
4%
Sauvignon
Black Pumas
“On the levee, baby, and behind the oak”
4%
Tennessee Stud
Hank Williams Jr. · MS
“We came to Big Muddy and we forded the flood”
4%
Here’s to the State of Mississippi
Phil Ochs · MS
“If you drag her muddy river, nameless bodies you will find”
4%
Drink ’Till We’re Gone
Lucero
“This big ol' river will kill us in time”
3%
Headed South
Cross Canadian Ragweed · LA
“I wanna walk down by that river”
3%
Chocolate Jesus
Tom Waits
“He flows like the big muddy, but that's okay”
2%
Louisiana
Tim McGraw
“I was wild and free as the Mississippi”
2%
Mountain Music
Alabama · LA
“Then I'll float on down the river”
2%
New Orleans Ladies
Tab Benoit · LA
“And they roll just like the river”
2%
Traveling Riverside Blues (Take 1)
Robert Johnson · MS
“We goin' to barrelhouse all night long, 'cause it's on the riverside”
2%
William Faulkner
Tennessee Jet
“My father cried on the bank of the mighty Mississippi”
2%
Memphis On the River
Matt Stell · TN
“Memphis on the river, that's where I wanna go”
2%
What the Rocks Don’t Know
Willi Carlisle
“Mississippi deep”
1%

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