https://open.spotify.com/user/1221238964/playlist/... (**Spotify Playlist Link)

I drive a lot. This past weekend, I made the three-hour trek to Bethany Beach and back, which I know is not absurdly long but at least for me, it's long enough to deserve a solid, atmospheric playlist to accompany the rural, wide-open scenery.

So for my, and hopefully your, enjoyment, I crafted a playlist of 83 and cout instrumentally rich tunes about nature and travel's cool breeze speed that, for me, match the feeling of driving 65 on a quiet back-road with a Delaware sunset reflecting off sweet corn, dairy cows, and family-run country stores. It is called 'Open Road.'

I also sort of associate road trip tunes with a climactic moment in a coming of age film. For that reason and for my association with open roads with wideness, a lot of these songs are big, with rich, cinematic instrumentation.

A lot of this music is folky, which I associate with nature, and thus rural, infinite roads with grassland, crops, fresh air, and wildlife on both sides.

Bigtree Bonsai – "Rollin' Down the Road"

The title may be enough to make the cut, but the upbeat folky melody is what makes it an obvious choice with a fitting echoey vocal and smooth acoustic riff. The guitar hook makes me feel like I just realized something super important.

The Avett Brothers – "Another Travelin' Song "

I could really choose from any of their catalogue. Maybe my favorite band, but hey, this song is about travelin’, so there you go. But really, The Avett Brothers are great for this sort of thing; they don’t over stimulate you or demand your attention but generate a lukewarm, relatable feeling in all their songs that make any road trip easy.

Little May - "Boardwalks"

Her voice and guitar work are both little in sound, but big in feeling. The song feels like a little bird that just turned into a human and wrote a commercial-friendly folk pop song.

School of Seven Bells - "Windstorm"

A fun chorus, and she mentions wind a lot, which you sometimes feel on your face if you roll the windows down.

Bleachers - "Wild Heart"

This dude writes some familiar yet unique pop songs on this debut album with Bleachers. Something about this opening track feels like a melodramatic conclusion to an '80s film about kids, as the couple or best friends drive away with a cheesy ending line about how this might not be such a bad summer after all or something.

Streets of Laredo - "Slow Train"

The lyrical themes of travel fit the playlist theme on a literal level. The “oooo” chorus sounds like a train leaving its station as the sad runaway changes his mind at the last second and jumps off the hay car. I don’t drive a train, but this stuff is still cool to think about on a road trip.