Who qualified? Anyone who was born here, even if he or she left the state while still in diapers. Rather than limiting ourselves to songs that are about Texas, we defined a Texas song as any song performed by a Texas artist.

If you consider that everything from blues to conjunto to jazz to R&B to rock and roll has been made here, the meaning of that phrase can be as expansive as the state itself. Before you pore over our picks for the best Texas songs, you’ll probably want to know about the methodology behind the list, starting with how we define a Texas song.