Almost everyone gets nostalgic when thinking about going home. There is something about returning to the place one was raised, whether it’s the city or the country, that resonates with almost everyone.
Videos by American Songwriter
These four nostalgic country songs were all released in the last 25 years, and all celebrate the beauty of going home.
“The House That Built Me” by Miranda Lambert
Miranda Lambert released “The House That Built Me” in 2010, on her Revolution album. Written by Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin, the touching song says in part, “I thought if I could touch this place or feel it / This brokenness inside me might start healing / Out here, it’s like I’m someone else / I thought that maybe I could find myself / If I could just come in, I swear I’ll leave / Won’t take nothing but a memory / From the house that built me.”
The song was first pitched to Blake Shelton, whom Lambert was dating at the time. But as soon as she heard the song, she began to weep, prompting Shelton to let her record the song instead.
“That song came on, and it was piano, male vocal,” Lambert tells Essentials Radio. “I think Tom was singing it. And I literally was like, ‘You have to pull over.’ I was sobbing. … It overtook my body for some reason. I cared about it so much that I think it found its perfect home. It’s the greatest song I’ve ever recorded. I wish I would have written it.”
“My Town” by Montgomery Gentry
Montgomery Gentry, the duo made up of Eddie Montgomery and Teddy Gentry, had a Top 5 hit with “My Town”. Out in 2002 as the title track of their third studio album, the song was written by Reed Nielsen and Jeffrey Steele.
“My Town” celebrates the uniqueness of anyone’s hometown. The song says, “Where I was born / Where I was raised / Where I keep all my yesterdays / Where I ran off ’cause I got mad / And I came to blows with my old man / Where I came back to settle down / This is where they’ll put me in the ground / This is my town.”
The video takes place in Perryville, Kentucky, where Montgomery was raised.
“Half Of My Hometown” by Kelsea Ballerini
Kelsea Ballerini perfectly describes the heartache of leaving a hometown you love in search of something more in “Half Of My Hometown“. Written by Ballerini, along with Ross Copperman, Nicolle Galyon, Shane McAnally, and Jimmy Robbins, “Half Of My Hometown” says, “Back roads raise us / Highways, they take us / Memories make us wanna go back / To our hometown.”
Both Ballerini and Kenny Chesney are from East Tennessee, which is why she asked him to join her on the song.
“[It was] hard to listen to because it was so beautiful,” Chesney tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “And it was so much about not only her life, but it was about my life, and the same roads we drove down. And I knew I wanted to sing on it.”
“Home” by Blake Shelton
“Home” was actually first released by Michael Bublé. The pop singer wrote the song with Alan Chang and Amy Foster-Gillies, releasing it in 2005. But Shelton made it his own in 2008, becoming a No. 1 hit for him.
“Home” is about someone traveling while pursuing their dreams, while missing their loved one at home. The song says, “Another airplane, another sunny place / I’m lucky I know, but I wanna go home / I’ve got to go home / Let me go home / I’m just too far / From where you are / I wanna come home.“
In 2012, Shelton and Bublé wrote and recorded a holiday version of “Home”, which appears on Shelton’s Cheers, It’s Christmas album.
Photo by Charles Sykes/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
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