I travel a lot. The easy truth is that whenever I’m on the road, I miss my wife and kids. I miss the comforts of home.
In 2005—the year I graduated and left home for good—I began creating annual albums of favorite, meaningful music. Twenty years later, I’ve made 27 albums (OK, fine—you can call them “Mix Tapes”) with 476 total songs.
Throughout the years, HOME has been a fairly constant (though unintentional) theme in my selections. And especially today, just hours after finding out my maternal Grandfather passed, I realize that this theme is as much about the sentimentalities of my family as it us about my eternal home (2Cor 5:6-10).
In this post, I share 20 favorites in the following categories:
Sentimentality and Comfort
Love and Relationship
Christian Welcome
Longing for Heaven
Some songs may be familiar to you, though I hope some are also new, that today you would discover some gems that will comfort you when you’re next on the road.
I look forward to hearing what other songs you would add to this list—especially from female artists, since this is an incredibly male-heavy list. Happy listening!
Access the full YouTube playlist here!
Sentimentality and Comfort
1. “Homeward Bound” by Simon & Garfunkel
Album: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966)
Composer: Paul Simon
“Homeward bound / I wish I was / Homeward bound.”
2. “Back Home Again” by John Denver
Album: Back Home Again (1974)
Composer: John Denver
“Hey, it’s good to be back home again / Sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend / Yes, and hey, it’s good to be back home again.”
3. “Traveler” by Fernando Ortega
Album: Home (2000)
Composer: Fernando Ortega
“Heavenly Father / Remember the traveler / Bring us safely home.”
4. “Homesick” by Kings of Convenience
Album: Quiet is the New Loud (2001)
Composers: Eirik Glambek Bøe, Erlend Øye
“Homesick / Because I no longer know / Where home is.”
Album: Rabbit Songs (2002)
Composer: Hem (Dan Messé, Sally Ellyson)
“In a stranger’s town I am blessed to be / But I miss my home and my family.”
Love and Relationship
6. “You’re My Home” by Billy Joel
Album: Piano Man (1973)
Composer: Billy Joel
“Well I never had a place / That I could call my very own / That’s all right, my love / ‘Cause you’re my home.”
7. “A Plain Morning” by Dashboard Confessional
Album: The Swiss Army Romance (2000)
Composer: Chris Carrabba
“And I still got a day or two ahead of me / Till I’ll be heading home into your arms again.”
Album: It’s Time (2005)
Composers: Michael Bublé, Amy Foster-Gillies, Alan Chang
“Another aero plane, another sunny place / I’m lucky, I know, but I wanna go home.”
9. “Feels Like Home to Me” by Neil Diamond
Album: Dreams (2010)
Composer: Neil Diamond
“If you knew how happy you are making me / I never thought I’d love anyone so much / Feels like home to me.”
Album: Like Elliot Did (2016)
Composer: (don’t know their names)
“Coming home from work one night / I looked around and realized this is our home / Just what I was looking for / I found my home.”
Christian Welcome
11. “Lead Me Gently Home” by Johnny Cash
Album: Hymns by Johnny Cash (1959)
Composer: Will L. Thompson (traditional hymn)
“Oh, lead me gently home, Father / Lead me gently home, Father / If I fall upon the wayside / Lead me gently home.”
12. “Come Home Running” by Chris Tomlin
Album: Not to Us (2002)
Composers: Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves
“Oh heart of mine, come back home / You’ve been too long out on your own / And He’s been there all along / Watching for you down the road.”
13. “Homeward” by Future of Forestry
Album: Awaken to the Sound (2016)
Composer: Eric Owyoung
“We are homeward / In my voice you will know / The sound of hope.”
Album: Chain Breaker (2016)
Composers: Zach Williams, Ethan Hulse, Jonathan Smith
“I need to get home / I’m weary from this broken road / Home to my refuge from this storm / I need to get home.”
15. “Running Home” by Cochren & Co.
Album: Don’t Lose Hope (2020)
Composers: Michael Cochren, Bryan Fowler
“Out of the dark, into his arms / No more running away / I’m running home!”
Longing for Heaven
16. “Welcome Home (You)” by Brian Littrell
Album: Welcome Home (2006)
Composers: Brian Littrell, Dan Muckala
“Said I’ve been waiting for that day / Just to feel your embrace / Your love has shown / I will never be alone / You will welcome me home.”
Album: All That Is Within Me (2007)
Composer: MercyMe
“So amazed at what I’ve seen / So much more than this old mind can hold / When I finally make it home.”
Album: Never Lose Sight (2016)
Composers: Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Scott Cash
“This world is not what it was meant to be / All this pain, all this suffering / There’s a better place waiting for me / In Heaven.”
19. “My Home” by Sounds Like Reign
Album: Joy Comes in the Morning (2016)
Composer: Sounds Like Reign
“I’ve got Heaven on my Mind / And eternity upon my soul / For there I find my home.”
20. “Almost Home” by Matt Papa
Album: Almost Home (2021)
Composer: Matt Papa
“How many pilgrim saints have before us gone? / No stopping now, we’re almost home.”
Access the full YouTube playlist here!
For more encouraging music, check out: “50 Great Songs about Missions.”
Note about Links: The title link will take you to the songs on YouTube; the album-cover link will take you to Amazon. As an Associate, I get minor kickbacks from purchases made through the links.
©2025 E.T.
Read More about Music:
- Take Me Home: An Autobiography by John Denver (1994)
- Cash by Johnny Cash (1997)
- No Compromise by Melody Green and David Hazard (2000)
- Unashamed by Lecrae (2016)
- Between Heaven and the Real World by Ken Abraham and Steven Curtis Chapman (2016)
- Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson (2019)
- The God of the Garden by Andrew Peterson (2021)
- Theology That Sticks by Chris Anderson (2022)
- “50 Great Songs about Missions” by Elliot Templeton (2024) Playlist!
- “20 Great Songs about Home” by Elliot Templeton (2025) Playlist!
- “20 Great Songs about Light” by Elliot Templeton (2025) Playlist!