This one’s for a spot in the championship game.
We’re through the Elite Eight in our 2026 Whiskey Riff Madness tournament, and we’ve already shattered the record for the most votes EVER in the history of our tournament.
This past round, we had nearly 19,000 votes cast in just two days, and one matchup still came down to just a few hundred votes.
In case you’re just getting caught up, this year we took 64 artists from every corner of country music, from mainstream to Texas country to red dirt to Appalachia and everything in between, and we’re letting you vote for your favorite. We based the seeding on monthly Spotify listeners, which resulted in some fan favorites being seeded towards the bottom of the bracket.
As a result, it’s truly been anybody’s game throughout the tournament. We saw #16-seed Colby Acuff topple powerhouse #1-seed Chris Stapleton thanks to an absolutely masterful meme campaign, and in the Round of 32 two #1-seeds fell, with scrappy up-and-comer out of Texas, Hudson Westbrook, taking down Morgan Wallen while stadium headliner Zach Bryan fell to rising superstar Zach Top.
We saw our final #1-seed fall in the Sweet Sixteen when #13-seed Sturgill Simpson knocked off Luke Combs, leaving us with an Elite Eight that featured some of the a ton of scrappy independent country artists with incredibly passionate fan bases. And it showed in the voting.
For the first matchup we had #12-seed Cody Jinks going up against #7-seed Treaty Oak Revival. Both have been rolling throughout the tournament, racking up fairly easy wins against their competition, so it was truly anybody’s game heading into this one. And at the end of the day, the #12-seed pulled off the upset, with Cody Jinks moving on to the Final Four after taking home 61% of the vote.
Next up we had #13-seed Sturgill Simpson vs. #14-seed Turnpike Troubadours. Because we used Spotify listeners to seed our bracket, it was easy to see that these two were severely underrated and would be primed to make massive runs. But unfortunately for Johnny Blue Skies, his run comes to an end as Turnpike Troubadours came out on top with 68% of the vote.
In the West region we had our only “Nashville” country artist left in the tournament, as #8-seed Zach Top faced off with #15-seed Shane Smith & the Saints. Shane and the boys had already pulled off a MASSIVE upset in the last round when they pulled off the late comeback to take down Tyler Childers, proving just how much their fans were showing out in this tournament. And this round was no different: Despite Zach Top pulling out to an early lead, Shane Smith & the Saints took the lead overnight on Monday and never look back, cruising to the win with 60% of the vote.
And finally, we’ve got our ultimate Cinderella story, the #16-seed Colby Acuff facing off against #6 seed Whiskey Myers. Now, Whiskey Myers is always a powerhouse in our Whiskey Riff Madness tournament, rallying their fans and pulling off some incredible upsets over the years. And this round’s matchup was as back and forth as I’ve ever seen: I was watching the votes update in realtime last night, and it seemed like they were flying in for both artists right up until the polls closed.
When all was said and done, we had our closest matchup of the round, with the winner taking only 53% of the vote…and whether it’s his unmatched meme campaign, his mighty fan base, or whether he’s simply a team of destiny this year, the March Magic continues into April for Colby Acuff, who survives the closest matchup he’s faced in the tournament and advances to the Final Four.
We’ve never seen anything like it, folks.
With that said, here’s a look at the bracket up to this point:
And here’s a closer look at each region:
South
East
Midwest
West
Cody Jinks vs. Turnpike Troubadours.
Colby Acuff vs. Shane Smith & the Saints.
As they say, the cream rises to the top, and we’ve got 4 of my absolute favorites from the tournament fighting it out for a spot in the championship round.
So let’s get to voting.
Voting is open NOW to send your favorite artists to the championship round. You can vote at the link HERE or using the form below. We’re getting down to the wire ahead of the winner being revealed on Monday, so this will be a quick round: Voting in the Elite Eight ends TOMORROW, Thursday, April 2 at 11:59 pm central time, and you can vote as many times as you’d like.
It’s been a long, hard fought tournament but don’t let up now: Rally the fanbases, break out the memes, cast some votes for your favorite artists, and we’ll be back on Friday to reveal the championship matchup.
