"The River and the Highway" is a song written by Gerry House and Don Schlitz, and recorded by American country music artist Pam Tillis.

The song reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.

[1] The song is a ballad using a river and a highway as metaphors for a man and woman who are incompatible but whose lives intertwine.

The woman is symbolized as the river in that she "follows the path of least resistance" and "twists and turns with no regard to distance", while the man is "headed for a single destination".

Deborah Evans Price of Billboard praised the lyrics as "powerful poetic allegory at its very best".