WHAT BETTER WAY to celebrate the upcoming Diamond Anniversary of Route 66 than with song? We asked Steve Terrell, The Santa Fe New Mexican's pop music writer, to share his top six Route 66 Road songs. Here are his picks:

1. Route 66 – Written by the late Bobby Troup. This is hands down the mother song of the Mother Road. Nat King Cole, Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones, New Mexico's own Michael Martin Murphey and many others have urged a restless nation

2. Highway 66 Blues by Woody Guthrie – The yang to Bobby Troup's song's yin. In this Dust Bowl-era tune the dispossessed Okies aren't on the road to get their kicks. "Been on this road for a mighty long time/Ten million men like me/You drive us from your town, we ramble

3. Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone (sung by Charlie Pride, Doug Sahm) – A heartbroken hitchhiker hits the highway. "Here I am standin' on '66/Wish she hadn't done me that way."

4. Cadillac R9-11ch by Bruce Springsteen – An upbeat ode to Stanley Marsh's bizarre life-size shrine to American mobility—10 Caddies half-buried, nose down, facing west (at the same angle as Cheops' pyramid)—just west of Amarillo, Texas.

5. Across the Great Divide by The Band – O.K., this one's a stretch. The song is about a guy trying to talk his angry wife out of shooting him. But every time I hear the chorus, "Across the great divide, just grab your hat and take that ride," I can't help but think of that stretch of old 66 between Grants and Gallup.

6. Get Yer Kicks on Route 666 (performed by 27 Devils Joking, Monkeyshines) – Written by Santa Fe punk-rock titan Tom Trusnovic. I've never been able to figure out the lyrics. But it's great music to drive by.