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Songs About the Rio Grande / Río Bravo

162 songs reference the Rio Grande / Río Bravo · 4120 miles · Rivers & Waterways.

The Rio Grande, called the Rio Bravo on the Mexican side, forms roughly 1,250 miles of the border between Texas and Mexico on its way from the Colorado Rockies to the Gulf. It is a border, a crossing, and a symbol all at once, which is why so many songs reach for it.

Below are the tracks that name the Rio Grande, the artists behind them, and where along the river each one lands.

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

The Songs

Rio Grande
Dave Alvin
“TITLE”
70%
Cocaine Charlie (feat. The Texas Gentlemen)
Ryan Bingham · TX
“He'd slip across the river / back road along the Rio Grande”
70%
Austin Night
Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash · TX
60%
Johnny Dear
Kassi Valazza · TX
60%
Red and Rio Grande
Doug Supernaw · TX
60%
This Hard Land
Bruce Springsteen · TX
60%
By the Rio Grande
Tish Hinojosa · TX
60%
I’m an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande
Roy Rogers · TX
60%
It Happened in Monterey
Ruth Etting · TX
60%
We Did It Our Way
Rachel Proctor · TX
60%
Fernando
ABBA · TX
60%
Los Mandados
Vicente Fernández · TX
60%
San Bernadino
Christie · TX
60%
For Your Love
Chris LeDoux · TX
60%
The Wedding Samba
Edmundo Ros · TX
60%
Mean as Hell
Johnny Cash · TX
60%
Going to Mexico
Motorhead · TX
60%
Help Save the Youth of America
Billy Bragg · TX
60%
Great Dust Storm Disaster
Woody Guthrie · TX
60%
West Side of Town
Tish Hinojosa · TX
60%
All Just to Get to You
Pat Green · TX
60%
Love Abides
Tom Russell · TX
60%
What it is Kid
ZZ Top · TX
60%
King of the World
Steely Dan · TX
60%
Hurricane Angel
Ellis Paul · TX
60%
Chambers
Ben Nichols · TX
60%
Wild West
Joe Jackson · TX
60%
Silverado
The Marshall Tucker Band · TX
60%
Touch of Evil
Tom Russell · TX
60%
One Blue Sky
Sugarland · TX
60%
That’s the Thing about America
Montgomery Gentry · TX
60%
Wanted
The Refreshments · TX
60%
I Need a Margarita
Clay Walker · TX
60%
Pecos Bill
Riders in the Sky · TX
60%
Cowboy Beat
The Bellamy Brothers · TX
60%
City Lights
Livingston Taylor · TX
60%
For Your Love
Joe Ely · TX
60%
Radio Land
Michael Martin Murphey · TX
60%
Till it Snows in Mexico
Reba McEntire · TX
60%
O Mexico
Trisha Yearwood · TX
60%
Run the Ridges
Kingston Trio · TX
60%
Dance by the Rio Grande
Cory Morrow · TX
60%
Why Me
Kris Kristofferson · TX
60%
Sing
Nanci Griffith · TX
60%
Haley's Comet
Tom Russell · TX
60%
Trying to Stop Your Leaving
Dierks Bentley · TX
60%
W. TX Teardrops
Old 97's · TX
60%
Down Along the Sleepy Rio Grande
The Sons of the Pioneers · TX
60%
The Sante Fe at Midnight
Tom Russell
“And up the Street the Rio Grande like Egypt's old Blue Nile”
43%
Borderline Crazy
William Beckmann · TX
“South of the Rio Grande, lost in some nowhere town”
25%
Damn Near Normal
Koe Wetzel
“And I'm all turned up like the Rio Grande”
25%
C’mon Utah!
Shovels & Rope · NM
“and on up the Rio Grande”
25%
El Paso City
Marty Robbins · TX
“El Paso City, by the Rio Grande”
25%
I’ll Take Texas
Vince Gill · TX
“When it shines across the Rio Grande”
25%
Laredo
Leon Bridges · TX
“Inspiration hard to find across the Rio Grande”
25%
Land of Enchantment
Michael Martin Murphey · NM
“We watched the sunset by the Rio Grande”
25%
Sante Fe
Joe Purdy · NM
“Crest of the Rio Grand”
25%
Werewolves of the Rio Grande
The Pine Box Boys · TX
“Werewolves of the Rio Grande”
25%
Lonely Girl’s Lament
Summer Dean · TX
“I might be the loneliest girl this side of the Rio Grande”
24%
A Border Tragedy
Robert Earl Keen · TX
“What once was a river But now is a ditch That smells just like sewage”
24%
That Girl in Texas
Jon Wolfe · TX
“That old Rio Grande”
24%
Border Radio
John Baumann · TX
“A station 'cross the Rio Grande broadcast on an AM band”
24%
Top Hand
Charley Crockett · TX
“Rio Bravo”
24%
King of Alabama
Brent Cobb
“From Alabama 'cross the Rio Grande”
24%
Lajitas
The Panhandlers · TX
“In the Rio Grande”
24%
Coffee Brown Eyes
Billy Walker · TX
“We’d meet at an old run down shack just south of the river”
24%
Texas Echo
David Ball · TX
“Carry my love to the Rio Grande”
24%
Southwestward
Johnny Cash · TX
“five thousand men under Santa Anna had crossed the Rio Grande headed for San Antonio”
24%
Me and Maria
Owen Temple
“And I wade that muddy river 'til I reach the other side”
24%
Yellow Rose of Texas
Hoyt Axton · TX
“When the Rio Grande is flowing, the starry skies are bright”
23%
Texas Rangers
Michael Martin Murphey · TX
“We marched from San Antonio unto the Rio Grande”
23%
Somos Más Americanos
Los Tigres Del Norte · TX
“Nos compraron sin dinero las aguas del río Bravo.”
23%
Bordertown
Dan Seals · TX
“he drives out on the Rio Grande”
23%
Tennessee Stud
Johnny Cash · TX
“I crossed the river called the Rio Grande”
23%
Albuquerque
BYLAND · NM
“I was washed by the waters Of the Rio Grande”
23%
Ramon Casiano
Drive-By Truckers · TX
“Down by the Sister Cities river”
23%
El Paso Kid
Mac Leaphart
“So he just headed north along the Rio Grande”
23%
The Yellow Rose Of Texas
Gene Autry · TX
“Where the Rio Grande is flowing and the stars are shining bright”
23%
West of East
Jarrod Morris
“Straight out a Rio Bravo scene”
23%
One Shot To Wake
Lost Dog Street Band
“Now it's New Years on the Rio Grande”
23%
W. TX. Teardrops
Old 97's · TX
“It dug a rut they call the Rio Grande”
23%
Goodnight, Juarez
Tom Russell · TX
“Across the Rio Grande, I saw your poverty lights”
23%
The Rio Grande Runs Red
Johnny Rodriguez & Johnny Bush
“The Rio Grande Runs Red”
23%
Rio Grande
Austin Meade & Treaty Oak Revival · TX
“Gotta make it to the waters of the Rio Grande”
23%
Just Across The Rio Grande
Reba McEntire · TX
“Just across the Rio Grande”
22%
Leavin’ Texas
Jerry Jeff Walker · TX
“If I just make it to the border, the borders of the Rio Grande”
22%
Somewhere Over Laredo
Lainey Wilson · TX
“Laid there on the banks of the Rio”
22%
Image of a Woman
Charley Crockett · TX
“I was raised on the Rio Grande”
22%
Yellow Rose Of Texas
Roy Rogers · TX
“Where the Rio Grande is flowin'”
22%
Restless Kid (demo)
Johnny Cash · TX
“Rio Bravo's killing me”
22%
TEXAS TROUBLE
Colin Vincent · TX
“I'm a wanted man from Rio Grande to San Antone”
22%
Gringo Honeymoon
Robert Earl Keen
“We took a row boat across the Rio Grande”
22%
What I Like About Texas
Jerry Jeff Walker · TX
“It's everything between the Sabine and the Rio Grande”
22%
Grand Canyon
The Droptines · TX
“If I was the Rio Grande, I'd carry you so far away”
22%
Take Me to Texas
George Strait · TX
“The Rio Grande is in my veins”
21%
Texas Rangers
Richard Shindell · TX
“We marched from San Antonio down to the Rio Grande”
21%
Tennessee Stud
Doc Watson · TX
“We crossed that river called the Rio Grande”
21%
Tennessee Stud
Chris LeDoux · TX
“We crossed the river called the Rio Grande”
21%
Day of the Dead
Wade Bowen · TX
“Oh, the river is down here in Lajitas”
21%
Spanish Two Step
Bob Wills · TX
“Down below the Rio Grande, a senorita held my hand”
21%
Tennessee Stud
Hank Williams, Jr. · TX
“We crossed the river called the Rio Grande”
21%
Clear Isabel
Aaron Watson · TX
“So come on let’s cross that Rio”
21%
Carmen
Gene Watson · TX
“Dusty old Juarez on the old Rio Grande”
21%
Just a Bordertown
Valerie Ponzio · TX
“Dirt roads running along the Rio Grande”
21%
Among Tumbleweeds
Goodnight, Texas · NM
“Her father mined for silver by the upper Rio Grande”
21%
I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)
Roy Rogers
“I'm An Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande”
21%
The Juarez Device (aka Texican Badman)
Terry Allen · TX
“And I'm gonna go across that Rio Grande”
21%
Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)
Woody Guthrie · TX
“My father's own father, he waded that river”
20%
Distant Roads
Leon Majcen · TX
“I didn't stop 'till the Rio Grande”
20%
Cover My Trail Tonight
Charley Crockett · TX
“Border winds”
20%
The Border
Willie Nelson · TX
“Cross the river to die by myself down in old Mexico”
20%
The Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Disaster)
Woody Guthrie
“to the lazy Rio Grande”
20%
Down the Rio Grande
Tom Russell
“Down the Rio Grande”
20%
Time of the Cottonwood Trees
Vincent Neil Emerson
“She followed me up the Rio Grande”
20%
Tex-Mex
John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band · TX
“Prettiest bride from the Red River to the Rio Grande”
20%
My Texas Girl
The Carter Family · TX
“Where the sleepy Rio Grande goes slowly to the sea”
20%
The Final Stand of Henry Lee
Danno Simpson · TX
“They followed me from the Rio Grande”
20%
The Biggest Airport In the World
Moe Bandy · TX
“I bought her pretty dresses for the honeymoon down on the Rio Grande”
20%
Rose of the Rio Grande
Donald Lambert · TX
“Rose of the Rio Grande”
20%
Una Flor Quise Cortar
Los Hermanos Mendoza · TX
“Por las márgenes del río, de Reynosa hasta Laredo Silvana en el Río Grande”
20%
The Texas Rangers
Tex Ritter · TX
“We marched from San Antonio down to the Rio Grande”
19%
The Yellow Rose Of Texas
Ernest Tubb · TX
“Where the Rio Grande is flowing and the skies are bright”
19%
Rosalita
Al Dexter · TX
“You won my heart down by the rio”
19%
Across the Borderline
Ry Cooder
“Up and down the Rio Grande”
19%
Texas Blue
Chris Rea · TX
“All along the Rio grande”
19%
Boys From Oklahoma
Cross Canadian Ragweed · TX
“They smuggle across the Rio”
19%
New Spanish Two Step
Bob Wills · TX
“Down below the Rio Grande”
19%
Keep Texas Beautiful
Jerry Jeff Walker · TX
“But a float trip down the Rio Grande would sure do a lot for me”
19%
Texas
George Strait · TX
“Nobody'd swim the Rio Grande”
19%
The Mighty Rio Grande
This Will Destroy You
“The Mighty Rio Grande”
19%
Goodbye Old Paint
Peter Rowan & Don Edwards
“Down on the Rio Grande”
19%
El Corrido de José Mosqueda
Óscar Chávez · TX
“TITLE”
13%
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
Grateful Dead · TX
“Across the Rio Grandio, across the lazy river”
8%
Hills of Old Juarez
Tom Russell · TX
“I prayed I'd reach the river bank where I had left Inez”
7%
What I Like About Texas
Gary P. Nunn · TX
“It's everything between the Sabine and the Rio Grande”
7%
Outlaw State of Mind
Chris Stapleton · TX
“From West Virginia to The Rio Grande”
7%
Keepin’ it ’Tween the Lines
Paul Eason · TX
“From the Red to the Rio Grande”
7%
The Ballad of Billy the Kid
Billy Joel
“East and west of the Rio Grande”
7%
All Just to Get to You
Joe Ely · TX
“Crossed the Rio Grande”
7%
Gallo del Cielo
Tom Russell · TX
“Then he crossed the Rio Grande with that rooster nestled deep beneath his arm”
6%
Gallo del Cielo
Joe Ely · TX
“Then he crossed the Rio Grande with that roosted nestled deep within his arm”
6%
Cover Up the Sun
Counting Crows · TX
“He said they toured the country far away from the Rio Grande”
6%
Heaven
Kevin Fowler · TX
“Coyote howling 'cross the Rio Grande and”
6%
Down By The River
Ray Wylie Hubbard · TX
“Gonna take you down by the river”
5%
Deportee (Plane Crash at Los Gatos)
Woody Guthrie · TX
“My father's own father, he waded that river”
4%
How ’Bout Them Cowgirls
George Strait · TX
“I felt the rush of the Rio Grande”
4%
Rio
Kyle Park · TX
“He said he'd named him Rio, got him on the border line He's bred just like the river”
4%
Vaquero
Aaron Watson · TX
“his tears started flowing like the Rio Grand-e”
4%
Lone Star Love
Red Steagall · TX
“From Texarkana to the Rio Grande”
4%
The Devil Or Jesse James
Cris Jacobs · TX
“cross the river down Nuevo Laredo”
4%
American Rivers
Tom Russell · TX
“And the Wabash and the Hudson and the brave Rio Grande”
3%
Me & Shooter
Charley Crockett · TX
“Lubbock down to the Rio Grande”
3%
The Border
Chris Knight · TX
“stared across the Rio Grande”
3%
I Like Texas
Pat Green · TX
“On down to the Rio Grand”
3%
With You I Am
Cody Johnson · TX
“smile as wide as the Rio Grande”
3%
Haley’s Comet
Dave Alvin · TX
“In a pancake house near the Rio Grande”
3%
Mexico or Crazy
Jason Boland & The Stragglers · TX
“But there's a mountain taller the ones here on the rio”
3%
Old Paint Horse
Buffalo Kin
“By the time I reached the Rio Grande”
3%
99 Bottles
Zane Williams · TX
“Rio Grande, River Rock, Tecate with a twist top”
2%
Josefina
Bri Bagwell · TX
“Right across the Rio Grand”
1%
Reno
Dottie West · TX
“These things I'm knowing, the Rio is flowing”
1%
Adios
The Wilder Blue
“Adios Rio Grande”
1%

More Rivers & Waterways

Rio Grande / Río Bravo 249 Mississippi River 217 Red River 88 Brazos River 43 Ohio River 30 Guadalupe River 18 Cumberland River 17 Tennessee River 15
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