This one’s for all the marbles.
We’re down to the final round in our 2026 Whiskey Riff Madness tournament. After five rounds and 200,000 votes cast, we’re down to our final two competitors in the wildest eedition of Whiskey Riff Madness we’ve ever seen.
So how did we get here?
Well 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 incredible meme campaign and one of the most dedicated fanbases in the game. 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, and Shane Smith & the Saints proved they were capable of winning it all by taking down Zach Top in the Elite Eight.
Then we got to the Final Four. It was truly anybody’s matchup, with Cody Jinks going up against Turnpike Troubadours while two Cinderella stories, Colby Acuff and Shane Smith & the Saints, went head to head.
And when it came time to vote, the fanbases were clearly fired up: We absolutely SHATTERED the record for most votes ever in a round, with over 68,000 votes being cast in just two days.
So who is advancing to the championship?
Cody Jinks had steamrolled the competition throughout the entire tournament, but unfortunately for him, so had Turnpike – and when it came time to face off against each other, it was #14-seed Turnpike Troubadours who came out on top with 65% of the vote.
Then we had Colby Acuff vs. Shane Smith & the Saints. And let me tell you, this one went back and forth the entire time, and also included an incredible comeback.
Yesterday morning, it looked like Colby Acuff’s incredible run was finally going to come to an end, as the Idaho native found himself down to Shane Smith & the Saints by a 60-40 margin (which at the time was around 2,000 votes). But if we’ve learned anything over the past couple weeks, it’s that there’s absolutely no quit in the “Western White Pines” singer, and his fanbase is as dedicated as they come, rallying behind him when he needs it the most.
In less than an hour, Colby managed to eliminate the deficit and take the lead over Shane Smith & the Saints – and he was starting to pull away, racking up a 5,000 or so vote lead by yesterday evening.
But Shane Smith is no Chris Stapleton, and wasn’t about to take this one lying down: A late-night rally just hours before voting closed ended up giving us the closest matchup of the tournament. And at the end of the day, after 68,000 votes, the winner came out on top by just 298 votes.
That means the winner, and the final spot in the championship goes to…
Colby Acuff.
What. A. Run.
Here’s a look at the bracket so far:
And here’s a closer look at each region:
South
East
Midwest
West
So there we have it. The championship round is set: Turnpike Troubadours vs. Colby Acuff for the championship. A tale as old as time: The classic #14-seed vs. #16-seed matchup for the championship.
Voting is open NOW to crown our champion. You can vote at the link HERE or using the form below. Voting ends Sunday, April 5 at 11:59 pm central time, and you can vote as many times as you’d like ahead of the champion being revealed on Monday.
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 artist, and we’ll be back on Monday to crown a champion.
