Brittany Howard plays with Alabama Shakes (Caleb Turrentine / The Bama Buzz)

Rolling Stone took on the impossible task of trying to find the 250 best songs of the last 25 years and to no surprise, Alabama music has a presence on the list.

Three songs from Alabama artists made the list including:

Cover Me Up by Jason Isbell – No. 148
Lilacs by Waxahatchee – No. 173
Hold On by Alabama Shakes – No. 211

Keep reading to listen to each song + see what Rolling Stone had to say about the Alabama inspired music.

Jason Isbell

ShoalsFest 2025 (Caleb Turrentine / The Bama Buzz)

Trying to pick which Jason Isbell song could be on the list may have been one of the most difficult tasks for the Rolling Stone writers.

His songwriting has made him a star in the Americana music world and his guitar playing separates him from what people typically expect from singer-songwriters. But often at the heart of his music is the gut-wrenching storytelling and that’s exactly why Cover Me Up made the top 150.

“On the cornerstone track of his 2013 album, Southeastern, Isbell sings candidly and vividly about getting sober, finding redemption, and falling in the kind of love that is equal parts passion and companionship. ‘Girl, leave your boots by the bed/We ain’t leaving this room,’ he sings, his voice arching skyward. ‘Till someone needs medical help/Or the magnolias bloom.’ Alas, Isbell is now divorced from the woman he wrote it about, but “Cover Me Up” doesn’t lose any of its power. Morgan Wallen’s version introduced the song to a whole new audience, but it’s Isbell’s aching original that remains the definitive.”
Rolling Stone

The record won “Song of the Year” honors from the Americana Music Awards, the second of four Isbell songs to win the award.

Isbell, who grew up in Green Hill, often sings of his roots in Alabama. In recent years, his ShoalsFest has brought large crowds to Florence to celebrate local + Americana music.

Waxahatchee

Speaking of ShoalsFest, Katie Crutchfield was one of the stars of the 2025 festival at McFarland Park.

The Birmingham area native and her band, better known as Waxahatchee, continues to gain popularity especially among music critics. Her latest album, Tigers Blood, was nominated for Americana Album of the Year at the 2025 Grammy Awards.

But it was a song from her previous album that was recognized by Rolling Stone. Waxahatchee’s Lilacs, off the album Saint Cloud, came in at 173rd on the list.

“Katie Crutchfield has spent the past two decades proving that she’s one of indie rock’s greatest songwriters, and this standout shows so much of what she’s good at: a tunefully raw verse that drops you vividly into a headspace, elegantly evocative lines spun like it was nothing, chorus that (no pun) blooms like a small miracle. “Lilacs” was the final song Crutchfield wrote for 2020’s Saint Cloud, the album she got sober while making.

“That amazing chorus was actually a way to transcend a bad moment. “It was definitely one of those days,” she told Rolling Stone’s Angie Martoccio. “When I wrote that chorus, I was like, ‘All right, we’re going to make this a little bit of a light at the end of the tunnel.’”
Rolling Stone

Alabama Shakes

It has been a busy year for Alabama Shakes and its fans.

A reunion tour has officially wrapped up and rumors of a new album continue to swirl after the band released its first new single in more than a decade.

But even with all the new buzz around the band first formed in Athens, it’s hard to forget the first album that brought so many fans in. And one particular song of that debut album has been recognized by Rolling Stone as one of the best of the 21st century so far.

“Hold On also sported lyrics anyone could understand — about leaving your teens behind, taking on new responsibilities, and wondering if you were up to the task — along with a taut guitar groove and a Howard vocal that still grabs you by the lapel more than a dozen years later.”
Rolling Stone

The hit song from Alabama Shakes came in at No. 211 on Rolling Stone’s list of best songs in the 21st century. That ranking comes just a few months after Boys & Girls was ranked 163rd in the magazine’s best albums of the last 25 years.

The song, which was first released in February 2012, is considered certified gold in the United States + Canada. It was the lead single on the band’s debut album Boys & Girls.

Hold On was nominated for a Grammy as the Best Rock Performance and was named the Song of the Year by Rolling Stone.

“As Brittany Howard told NPR about the Alabama Shakes’ breakthrough hit, the first audience that heard the band working out “Hold On” onstage immediately joined in with its improvised chorus. ‘They thought it was a cover song,’ she said, ‘so they started singing it with us.’ That crowd response speaks to why the song became an immediate classic. It feels familiar — a bit of soul, a hint of blues — yet isn’t beholden to either genre.”
Rolling Stone