Toby Keith rehearses for the “2002 Academy of Country Music Awards” at the Universal Amphitheatre on May 20, 2002 in Los Angeles, Ca.
Kevin Winter/ImageDirect/Getty Images
Perhaps more than any other genre, country music has been linked with patriotism, for better or for worse, for decades. Attend any number of country concerts, and you’re likely to see an artist pay tribute to members of the American military, or witness audience members waving American flags or chanting “U.S.A.!” at some point during the show.
Numerous songs with patriotic or military themes have dotted Billboard‘s country charts over the years. Some songs offer protest of societal and political current events at the time they were released, while others praise the freedoms and simple joys of life many Americans experience on a daily basis. Still, other songs delve into the sacrifices that American soldiers make — including giving up their lives — so Americans can enjoy freedom. The canon of patriotic country songs is deep, with many of them celebrating the tenacity of the American spirit.
In the 1960s, the United States Air Force also created the radio program Country Music Time, which featured country artists such as Eddy Arnold and Skeeter Davis performing their songs, while the program also served as a military recruitment tool. Meanwhile, artists including Johnny Cash, George Jones, Faron Young and George Strait have served in the military. Other artists including Trace Adkins, Kellie Pickler and the late Toby Keith made it a priority to perform for military members on numerous U.S.O. tours. And at this year’s CMA Fest, singer-songwriter Craig Morgan, who has spent years as part of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Army Reserve, took part in the panel Enlisted: Where Music Meets Military.
Here, we look at 10 country songs that center on patriotism in various ways, or honoring those who serve.
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Thomas Rhett, “American Spirit”
This 2016 track, from Thomas Rhett’s deluxe edition of his Tangled Up album, focuses on array of traditions and signifiers of small-town life, from red dirt roads to white pickup trucks and flags waving in the wind.
Key lyric: “It’s 13 stripes and 50 stars in the wind”
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Mickey Guyton, “All American”
This 2021 song from Guyton’s Remember Her Name project acts as a unifying rally call, one that Guyton wrote with Karen Kosowski, Victoria Banks and Emma Lee.
Key lyric: “We got the same stars, the same stripes/ Just wanna live that good life/ Ain’t we all, ain’t we all American?”
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Phil Vassar, “American Child”
This 2002 track peaked at No. 5 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, espousing the freedom to pursue aspirations and fulfill dreams.
Key lyric: “Cause 419 Lakewood had no silver spoons, just an old beat up upright that played out of tune/ Now I’m singing and living the life that I love”
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John Conlee, “They Also Serve”
In this song from his 2004 album Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, Conlee honors the families of those who are deployed, recognizing the sacrifices that mothers, fathers, children, grandparents and more make when a loved one is on military duty.
Key lyric: “They don’t wear a uniform or carry a gun/ But they’re still in the war”
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Coffey Anderson, “Fourth of July Song”
Singer-songwriter and Texas native Anderson is known for having a few patriotic songs in his catalog, including “Mr. Red, White and Blue.” He recently released this new track just in time for 2024’s July 4th holiday. “This song is an ode to our country,” he said of “Fourth of July Song” on Instagram.
Key lyric: “Let freedom ring, Old Glory will fly/ Happy Birthday, U.S.A., on the Fourth of July”
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Brad Paisley, “American Saturday Night”
This 2009 release, which Paisley co-wrote with Ashley Gorley and Kelley Lovelace, cleverly and light-heartedly looks at the melting pot of influences that have helped shape the country over the years.
Key Lyric: “And it’s a French kiss, Italian ice/ Spanish moss in the moonlight/ Just another American Saturday night”
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Billy Ray Cyrus, “Some Gave All”
This 1992 release is also the title track to Cyrus’ smash hit debut album, and honors military members who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
Key lyric: “And if you ever think of me, think of all your liberties and recall/Some Gave All”
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Toby Keith, “American Soldier”
During the course of his career, Keith earned hits with many military- and patriotic-themed hits, perhaps most notably the post-9/11 song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).” But it is perhaps this song that tops Keith’s patriotic song canon, with a clear-eyed look at the daily sacrifices military members make.
Key lyric: “I don’t do it for the money, there’s bills that I can’t pay/ I don’t do it for the glory, I just do it anyway”
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Brooks & Dunn, “Only in America”
This Brooks & Dunn release from 2001 paints a lyrical picture of a New York City school bus driver looking in the mirror at the students on board, and pondering the myriad of possibilities the future could hold for those youngsters.
Key lyric: “One kid dreams of fame and fortune, one kid helps pay the rent/ One could end up going to prison, one just might be president”
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Trace Adkins, “Arlington”
Sung from the point of view of a fallen soldier laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. The song was inspired by U.S. Marine Cpl. Patrick Nixon, a Tennessee soldier who died in Iraq.
“I knew that was the song I had been waiting a long time to record,” Adkins told CMT in 2005. “I almost recorded ‘Letters From Home,’ and then for some reason, I was thinking, ‘It just doesn’t feel quite right.’ Of course, John Michael Montgomery had a bit hit with it — which was great. But then this song came along, and I said, ‘Oh, there it is. That’s what I’ve been waiting for.’ It’s just a nonpolitical song. It doesn’t glorify war at all or anything like that. It’s just simply playing tribute and homage and respect to the people who gave that last full measure.”
Key lyric: “And I’m proud to be on this peaceful piece of property/ I’m on sacred ground and I’m in the best of company”
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Tim McGraw, “If You’re Reading This”
This 2007 release marks one of McGraw’s most impactful songs, crafted as a letter from a soldier of war to his lover in the event that he was killed in battle. McGraw co-wrote the song with The Warren Brothers’ Brad and Brett Warren.
Key lyric: “So lay me down in that open field out on the edge of town and know my soul is where my momma always prayed that it would go”
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The Warren Brothers, “Hey Mr. President”
The Warren Brothers’ Brad and Brett Warren are top-notch songwriters in their own right (see the McGraw track above). However, in their own 2005-released song, penned by illustrious songwriter Tom Douglas, the composition forgoes the chest-thumping, flag-waving imagery so prevalent in perhaps the majority of centering on the concerns of Americans on both sides of the political aisle, in a still-timely message of people who hope for peace and to simply see their children grow up.
Key lyric: “And we pray that we dance at our daughters’ weddings/and our sons grow to fine men, and for peace on our land”
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Johnny Cash, “Ragged Old Flag”
In this Cash classic, the American flag bears several of its own triumphant “medals” of survival, from a hole where Washington flew it while crossing the Delaware, or a powder burn during the night Francis Scott Key watched it while writing the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Key lyric: “And she’s getting threadbare and wearing thin, but she’s in good shape for the shape she’s in/’Cause she’s been through the fire before, and I believe she can take a whole lot more”
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Toby Keith, “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)”
This Toby Keith song garnered both praise and controversy following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The song, which Keith also wrote as a tribute to his deceased father, was the lead single from Keith’s 2002 album Unleashed and encapsulated the anger many Americans felt in the wake of attacks.
Key lyric: “When we see Old Glory flying/ There’s a lot of men dead so we can sleep in peace at night when we lay down our head”
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Lee Greenwood, “God Bless the USA”
Love it or hate it, this is still the song that blasts out of radios across the nation every July 4th. Written and recorded by Greenwood, this 1984 release is filled with national pride.
“I guess the inner feeling of wanting to be a patriot,” Greenwood told Billboard in 2013. “My father served in the Navy in World War II, and I had a step-father who was in the Air Force. My very first bass player in my band was a member of the Air National Guard, and we started doing USO Tours when I was about fourteen or fifteen in my home town of Sacramento at McClellan Air Force Base. We did a tour to Alaska right before I got out of high school before it was a state. I have always recognized the sacrifice of the military.” He added, “As I said on the first line of the chorus, ‘I’m proud to be an American,’ because I hadn’t heard anyone say that in a long time.”
Key lyric: “I gladly stand up, next to you and defend her still today/ ‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land, God bless the USA.”