Songs on this list fall under various banners including folk, folk-rock, modern folk, alt-country, and Americana. Most genre lists at Dave’s Music Database are created by aggregating best-of lists from multiple sources. In this case, it was difficult to find lists focused on modern folk. As such, this list was compiled by pulling together any acts from 1980 forward who appeared on any best-of folk or folk rock song lists and folk/Americana album lists. Those applicable songs were then listed in order of overall ranking on Dave’s Music Database.
Click here to see other genre-specific song lists.
1. Tracy Chapman “Fast Car” (1988)
2. Johnny Cash “Hurt” (2003)
3. The Lumineers “Ho Hey” (2012)
4. Jeff Buckley “Hallelujah” (1994)
5. Passenger “Let Her Go” (2012)
6. Suzanne Vega “Luka” (1987)
7. Tracy Chapman “Give Me One Reason” (1995)
8. Shawn Colvin “Sunny Came Home” (1996)
9. Mumford & Sons “I Will Wait” (2012)
10. k.d. lang “Constant Craving” (1992)
11. Kacey Musgraves “Follow Your Arrow” (2013)
12. Grateful Dead “Touch of Grey” (1987)
13. Leonard Cohen “Hallelujah” (1984)
14. Indigo Girls “Closer to Fine” (1989)
15. Neil Young “Harvest Moon” (1992)
16. Jeff Buckley “Last Goodbye” (1994)
17. Tracy Chapman “Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution” (1988)
18. Mumford & Sons “Little Lion Man” (2009)
19. Ray LaMontagne “You Are the Best Thing” (2008)
20. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova as The Swell Season “Falling Slowly” (2007)
21. Brandi Carlile “The Joke” (2017)
22. The Soggy Bottom Boys “Man of Constant Sorrow” (2001)
23. Bruce Springsteen “Atlantic City” (1982)
24. The Lumineers “Ophelia” (2016)
25. Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard “Pancho and Lefty” (1983)
26. Leonard Cohen “You Want It Darker” (2016)
27. Shawn Colvin “I Don’t Know Why” (1992)
28. The Lumineers “Stubborn Love” (2012)
29. Mumford & Sons “Believe” (2015)
30. Chris Stapleton “Tennessee Whiskey” (2015)
31. Bob Dylan “Things Have Changed” (2000)
32. Mumford & Sons “Guiding Light” (2018)
33. Bruce Cockburn “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” (1984)
34. Mumford & Sons “The Cave” (2009)
35. Beck “Lost Cause” (2002)
36. Tracy Chapman “Crossroads” (1989)
37. Indigo Girls “Galileo” (1992)
38. Tracy Chapman “Baby Can I Hold You” (1988)
39. Brandi Carlile “The Story (I Was Made for You)” (2007)
40. Loreena McKennitt “The Mummer’s Dance” (1997)
41. Kacey Musgraves “Justified” (2021)
42. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit “If We Were Vampires” (2017)
43. The Lumineers “Gloria” (2019)
44. Chris Stapleton “Broken Halos” (2017)
45. Bon Iver “Holocene” (2011)
46. Bruce Cockburn “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” (1984)
47. The Head and the Heart “All We Ever Knew” (2016)
48. Suzanne Vega & Joe Jackson “Left of Center” (1986)
49. Kacey Musgraves “Rainbow” (2018)
50. Indigo Girls “Power of Two” (1994)
51. Fleet Foxes “White Winter Hymnal” (2008)
52. Bright Eyes “First Day of My Life” (2005)
53. Bruce Springsteen “The Ghost of Tom Joad” (1995)
54. The Highwomen “Crowded Table” (2019)
55. Kacey Musgraves “Space Cowboy” (2018)
56. Lucinda Williams “Righteously” (2003)
57. Bon Iver “Skinny Love” (2007)
58. Indigo Girls “Hammer and a Nail” (1990)
59. Tracy Chapman “Telling Stories (There Is Friction in the Space Between)” (2000)
60. Bruce Springsteen “Devils & Dust” (2005)
61. The Avett Brothers “Ain’t No Man” (2016)
62. Chris Stapleton “Starting Over” (2020)
63. The Head and the Heart “Missed Connection” (2019)
64. The Lumineers “Life in the City” (2019)
65. Sharon Van Etten “Seventeen” (2019)
66. Mumford & Sons “The Wolf” (2015)
67. Neko Case, k.d. lang, & Laura Veirs “Atomic Number” (2016)
68. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss “Please Read the Letter” (2007)
69. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)” (2007)
70. Sufjan Stevens “Chicago” (2005)
71. Bob Dylan “Everything Is Broken” (1989)
72. Leonard Cohen “Everybody Knows” (1988)
73. Bruce Springsteen “We Shall Overcome” (1998)
74. Suzanne Vega “Solitude Standing” (1987)
75. Bob Dylan “Mississippi” (2001)
76. Suzanne Vega “Tom’s Diner” (1987)
77. Sturgill Simpson “In Bloom” (2016)
78. Neko Case “Hold on Hold On” (2006)
79. The Head and the Heart “Lost in My Mind” (2011)
80. Neil Young “Philadelphia” (1994)
81. Ray LaMontagne & the Pariah Dogs “Beg, Steal or Borrow” (2010)
82. Shawn Colvin “Steady On” (1989)
83. Brandi Carlile “Right on Time” (2021)
84. Tracy Chapman “All That You Have Is Your Soul” (1989)
85. Indigo Girls “Get Together” (1987)
86. Bob Dylan “Dignity” (1994)
87. Shawn Colvin “Round of Blues” (1992)
88. Shawn Colvin “Diamond in the Rough” (1989)
89. The Avett Brothers “Kick Drum Heart” (2009)
90. Fleet Foxes “Helplessness Blues” (2011)
91. The Lumineers “Cleopatra” (2016)
92. Mumford & Sons “Lover of the Light” (2012)
93. Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen “Like I Used To” (2021)
94. The Head and the Heart “Rhythm & Blues” (2016)
95. Willie Nelson “City of New Orleans” (1984)
96. Ray LaMontagne “Strong Enough” (2020)
97. Neko Case “Last Lion of Albion” (2018)
98. Jason Isbell “24 Frames’ (2015)
99. Josh Ritter “Getting Ready to Get Down” (2015)
100. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss “Can’t Let Go” (2021)
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First posted 9/11/2022; last updated 9/16/2022. | 
