Always Worth the Drive: Road Trip Playlists

Yesterday, a customer came into the store and told me she’d picked up some new music and decided to go for a drive.

“Just like I did when I was a teenager,” she said. “I’m still doing the same things. And I still love driving out to the Teanaway.”

Same.

A good playlist. A pretty drive. It’s one of the best cures for the winter blues.

Visitors to the Teanaway Country Store know we always have music playing. Some days it’s Yacht Rock or Spice Girls, often Kenny Chesney on repeat. We even spin records on a little turntable—especially in the mornings while baking and stirring up the day’s specials.

Music has been a motivator for me for as long as I can remember. My dad used to buy records and then “remix” them so they’d fit onto an 8-track to play in the truck on our weekend road trips to Lake Billy Chinook. (You can blame him for my ability to recite just about every Waylon Jennings lyric.)

In high school, I was the Queen of the Mixtape. I went to journalism school because I wanted to write for Rolling Stone. Life took me in a different direction—I landed on the cop beat—but I did manage one unforgettable music-adjacent moment: interviewing James Brown while he was serving time in a South Carolina prison.

The playlists never stopped. My kids eventually dubbed me DJ Jazzy Trace, and the rules evolved. One of them—originally a joke from the ’80s—still stands: every road trip playlist must include a Def Leppard song. We also believe in a few crowd-pleasers, something unexpected, and a little music trivia for the ride. (For example: do you know the B-side to the Chicks’ “Cowboy Take Me Away”? Or who wrote it? Drop answers in the comments.)

I’m sharing one of my favorite road trip playlists as inspiration—whether you’re headed out for a long drive or just cruising the last stretch into the Teanaway.

Let this be your sign to roll the windows down, turn up the dial, and find your escape.

The Teanaway Country Store is always worth the drive.

Have a favorite song we should add to the next playlist?

Drop us a note—we’re always listening.

TCS Winter Playlist

My Church – Maren Morris

Sir Duke – Stevie Wonder

Road to Nowhere – Talking Heads

Shake It Off – Taylor Swift

Middle of the Road – The Pretenders

Steve McQueen – Sheryl Crow

East Bound and Down – Jerry Reed

Cowboy Take Me Away – The Chicks

Lawyers, Guns & Money – Warren Zevon

Me & Bobby McGee – Janis Joplin

Anywhere with You – Jake Owen

I’ve Always Been Crazy – Waylon Jennings

If I Had a Boat – Lyly Lovett

2 Tickets – Corey Harper

Make it Sweet – Old Dominion

Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me – Duet, George Michael & Sir Elton John

Rock of Ages – Def Leppard

Get Along – Kenny Chesney

All These Things - Killers