If you live in northern Alabama and want a grass that has both these characteristics, you should consider planting tall fescue.
Tall fescue is a cool season, perennial bunchgrass.
Because of its desirable features, tall fescue is used from central Alabama northward as a permanent grass for home lawns, industrial lawns, parks and roadsides. Description Cool season grasses such as fescue and bluegrass grow best in climates in which temperatures average 60 to 75 degrees F. Cool season grasses grow widely throughout the cool, humid regions of the midwestern and northeastern United States and in a transition zone which includes northern Alabama. The transition zone is that part of the United States where both warm season and cool season grasses can grow, even though climatic conditions are not ideal for either one. Warm season grasses usually have a longer winter dormant period in the transition zone, whereas cool season grasses have difficulty surviving hot summers. Tall fescue develops broad, flat blades which are shiny on the underside, rough to the touch on the edges, and prominently veined on the top of the leaf.