She got the Ronnie Dunn stamp of approval. On Saturday night, Kacey Musgraves surprised unsuspecting fans who were out for a night on Broadway when she showed up to Robert’s Western World in Nashville dressed as Ronnie Dunn, of Brooks & Dunn, to sing “Neon Moon.” Kacey was of course featured on the duo’s first edition of their Reboot album which was released in 2019, and her version of “Neon Moon” with Kix and Ronnie remains my favorite out of both projects to this day (they did a Reboot II in 2024 with different artists). At Robert’s, Kacey jumped onstage in the full Ronnie get-up, with the right jeans, shirt and belt, and she even had drawn on beard and wig… I mean, she got so detailed she even had some of Ronnie’s most prominent tattoos on too, including the “Cowboy” one on his forearm. There’s really not much context for this, so I don’t really know what made her decide to do it, but it’s hilarious and I’m actually surprised anyone even figured out it was her, but that voice is unmistakable: @_tayhendrix Kacey Musgraves as Ronnie Dunn performing Neon Moon at Robert’s Western World #kaceymusgraves #robertswesternsworld #nashville #countrymusic #brooksanddunn @kaceymusgraves @Brooks & Dunn @Robert’s Western World ♬ original sound – Taylor Hendrix Here’s another angle: @nashvillexp @kaceymusgraves singing Neon Moon at @Robert’s Western World is my spirit animal (: @robertswesternworld) #Nashville #615 #KaceyMusgraves #Country #BrooksAndDunn ♬ original sound – Nashville Experience And in a post on Instagram, Kacey shared a video of herself in the costume, along with Brooks & Dunn’s “Play Something Country” in the background, captioning the photo by alluding to her newest release “Dry Spell” saying: “OMW to end your dry spell.” Hilarious… she also joked in her own comments section that “Ronnie did nothing to deserve this”: “Btw Ronnie did nothing to deserve this.” But I think he was into it, because Ronnie also left a comment saying how good he looked: “Damn, I look good! RD.” Again, I don’t really know what this is about, but it’s so funny: View this post on Instagram Tons of other country artists left comments on the post, with Megan Moroney joking: “Smash.” Carter Faith also said: “Period I guess.” The whole comments section is a trip, so if you need something funny to make this Monday a little better, just go on and scroll through those for a good laugh… “I feel inspired tbh.” “Hell yeah brother.” “Unfortunately this is working for me.” “Giddy up SIR.” “Hard Twerkin’ Man.” “We needed this.” “I love whatever’s wrong with her.” “I’d still hit it lol.” “Do you do weddings?” “Didn’t know Ronnie was haulin’ so much freight!” “Guys I think she said f***** yee this time.” “Ronnie Dunn with a snatched waist is everything we needed today.” Kacey announced her sixth studio album Middle of Nowhere just a couple weeks ago, which was produced by Kacey alongside longtime collaborators Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk. Kacey is a proud Texas girl, and so the album draws on plenty of inspiration from her home state, and considering there’s a sign in her tiny, unincorporated, no-stoplight hometown of Golden, Texas, with a population of under 300 that reads “Golden, TX: Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere,” that sparked the idea for the title track and much of the theme for the entire album. Middle of Nowhere is due out everywhere on May 1st, and Kacey will also feature several duets on the record including collaborations with icon Willie Nelson, bluegrass phenom Billy Strings, and South African musician Gregory Alan Isakov, and yes, that long-awaited, seemingly improbable duet with Miranda Lambert is coming on a song called “Horses and Divorces.” “Neon Moon” with Kacey Musgraves “Dry Spell” The post “Damn, I Look Good!”: Ronnie Dunn Gives Kacey Musgraves’ Robert’s Western World Costume The Stamp Of Approval first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES? The first round of Whiskey Riff Madness 2026 is in the books, and it was easily the wildest round we’ve had since we’ve been doing this tournament. The premise this year was simple: 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. The seeding is based on monthly listeners on Spotify, so for everybody complaining about the seeding in the comments…blame their Spotify listeners. Well with the first round in the books, officially had more votes cast than we’ve ever had in a first round since we’ve been doing this tournament. In fact, this year we had nearly TEN TIMES the amount of votes we had for last year’s tournament, which just goes to show you how passionate these fan bases are. We had a few blowouts, a ton of close matchups, and a TON of upsets – including the biggest upset in the history of Whiskey Riff Madness. So let’s take a look at some of the results from the first round. First, the blowouts. There weren’t really a ton of them, but the biggest win of the round came not from a #1-seed but from #6-seed Eric Church, who got 88% of the vote against #11-seed Carly Pearce to move to the next round. Cody Johnson also dominated his matchup against Randy Houser with 85% of the vote, and #1-seed Luke Combs got 83% of the vote against Hailey Whitters to easily move through to the next round. The only other artists who broke 80% were Riley Green and Parker McCollum, who sailed through with wins over Chase Rice and Kelsea Ballerini. There were a ton of close matchups this year, with many going back and forth throughout the weekend. Megan Moroney was on top for a while, but in the end Billy Strings took the lead and ended up finishing with 59% of the vote. And in somewhat of a surprise, at least to me, Miranda Lambert and Midland went back and forth the entire round until Midland ultimately came out on top with 56% of the vote. The closest matchup, though, was between Lainey Wilson and Jamey Johnson, who at one point were in a dead even tie until Jamey eventually managed to pull away with 54% of the vote. We also had a ton of upsets this tournament: #5-seed Carrie Underwood never really stood a chance against #12-seed Cody Jinks, and though it was closer than I expected, #13-seed Sturgill Simpson still managed to come out on top over #4-seed Jon Pardi. Jason Aldean also lost in a blowout to the #14-seed Turnpike Troubadours (we know you think their seeding is criminal, we’ve seen your comments, but it was based on Spotify listeners) and #10-seed Colter Wall never had to sweat against #7-seed Tucker Wetmore. But now we get to the one you’ve been waiting for. The biggest upset in Whiskey Riff Madness history: #16-seed Colby Acuff over #1-seed Chris Stapleton. At one point this one wasn’t particularly close. In fact, on Friday Stapleton had 75% of the vote in this matchup. But like David taking on Goliath, Colby began to rally his dedicated fans and mounted a comeback for the ages, even having a t-shirt made for the matchup: NEVER GONNA WAVE THE WHITE FLAG. @ColbyAcuff https://t.co/iXtPHGcPWn pic.twitter.com/vFd6sWYwqN — Whiskey Riff (@WhiskeyRiff) March 21, 2026 At the time of that tweet, Colby needed around 1,000 votes to catch Stapleton. But he never gave up, and neither did his fans, and yesterday afternoon, it finally happened: His fans pushed him into the lead and never looked back, giving the Idaho native the win and the title for biggest upset in the history of Whiskey Riff Madness with 59% of the votes by the end of the round. You LOVE to see it. So let’s take a look at the bracket after the first round: And here’s a closer look at each region: South East Midwest West Some TOUGH matchups in this one. CWG vs. Muscadine Bloodline? Koe vs. Tyler Childers? Eric Church vs. Cody Johnson? I already know these are going to be tight, and every vote is going to count. You can vote at the link HERE or using the form below. Voting in this round ends on Wednesday, March 25 at 11:59 pm central time, and you can vote as many times as you’d like. So rally the fanbases for your favorite artists, because as we saw in the first round, truly anything is possible. Can’t wait to see how this one turns out. Loading…The post WHISKEY RIFF MADNESS 2026: Vote NOW To Send Your Favorite Artists To The Sweet Sixteen first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

An album rollout for the ages. It’s safe to say that Sturgill Simpson has never done anything conventionally. From his long history of switching genres seemingly at will to abandoning his name and being reborn as Johnny Blue Skies back in 2024 upon the release of Passage du Desir, you truly never know what to expect with the “Long White Line” singer. This year, we saw Simpson embark on his most ambitious release to date with the second album under Johnny Blue Skies (and the Dark Clouds), Mutiny After Midnight. In case you haven’t been keeping up with the Kentucky native’s somewhat convoluted rollout of the album, let me give you a brief rundown. Back on February 13th, Simpson would turn heads by officially announcing Mutiny After Midnight’s release on March 13th. However, there was a catch — it would be released exclusively on physical media, only having a CD, vinyl and cassette release. While this may have seemed like an out-of-left-field move for most artists, given the dedicated, non-traditional fanbase he’s gained over the past decade or so, it actually made a lot of sense. For Simpson, it was a way to not only give a middle finger to streaming services, which have never been profitable for independent artists, but it was also another form of protest, something that the entirety of the album was based upon. In a bold move, however, on Sunday, March 1st, Simpson ended up posting the album early. Essentially “leaking” his own album nearly two weeks early, the “Swamp of Sadness” singer posted the entirety of Mutiny After Midnight onto YouTube. In typical Sturgill fashion, he simply left this message on social media to guide all of his fans to the early release “Ooops…. might’ve just posted the whole fuk’n album on YouTube…. for the real ones.” For an entire week, Sturgill and JBS fans were able to stream the album they were previously told would be un-streamable, and it was glorious… until it wasn’t. After just eight days of being on YouTube, it was then removed from the platform, once again making March 13th Mutiny After Midnight’s “official” release date. Upon the album’s intended release on March 13th, he explained why they decided to do that while also thanking fans for their support. To explain it as quickly as possible, Sturgill and Co. knew that the album was eventually going to get leaked online in some capacity and wanted to get ahead of it themselves, in addition to showing support for independent record stores. Additionally, he’d signal that the album will most likely find its way onto streaming in the coming months as well. “Thank you very much to everyone for joining in on all the fun and being such good sports over the past few weeks. We made this record with a sense of immediacy and in the moment expression with the pure intention of simply having fun and making people forget about everything else, even if for only 44 minutes. Thank you to everyone that ‘gets it’ and to all the writers for the kind words and love. We had originally planned a physical only release for at least the first 4 to 6 weeks to support and show solidarity with independent record shops and to promote an increasingly bygone physical and tangible connection between music and music fans… the almost mystical bond and stems from holding a new piece of artistic expression in your hands while hearing it for the first time. There were some hiccups (and some opportunists) thus some in the moment adjustments that only led to more fun and chaos. Personally, I’m just here for the chaos. Plus I’ve always really wanted to leak my own record.” As Sturgill said himself, there were certainly some hiccups involved with the album’s rollout in its entirety. The question that remained, however, was, “Did it affect Mutiny After Midnight’s impact and overall sales?” The short answer is no, not at all. Last night, Mutiny After Midnight debuted at #3 on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart, selling 59,000 total units (all physical, of course) in its first week. In turn, it became the first album exclusively available on physical formats to reach the top 10 in nearly three years, with the last to do so being Taylor Swift’s Record Store Day-exclusive vinyl release Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions back in May 2023. Before Swift, the last time a physical-only release cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 was Garth Brooks’ The Anthology back in 2017. In response to the accomplishment, Simpson would take to Instagram and simply post an image of Popeye with the caption, “Put that in yer pipe and smoke it…” View this post on Instagram Incredibly, this marks Simpson’s highest-selling week in his entire career and also ties 2016’s Grammy-winning A Sailor’s Guide to Earth for his highest-charting album on the all-genre Billboard 200to date. While there have certainly been some critics of the album’s rollout, from its physical-only release to its eventual “leak” on YouTube, it’s pretty safe to say that all the chaos worked out well in the long run for the “Turtles All the Way Down” singer. Before you go, fire up the one track that’s available online now, “Situation.” The post Johnny Blue Skies’ “Mutiny After Midnight” Debuts At #3 On The Billboard 200 Despite Only Being Released On Physical Media first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Cody Johnson not only drew the largest crowd at Rodeo Houston, but also pulled off one helluva surprise for the audience. Last night Texas’ largest rodeo came to an end. Rodeo Houston is, of course, known for bringing together some of the best rodeo athletes to compete each year, but they are also known for their outstanding concert series as well. Each night, a famous face takes center stage at the iconic NRG Stadium and brings the house down. This year’s lineup included Megan Moroney, Riley Green, Chris Stapleton, Cody Johnson, the Red Clay Strays, and more. To close out this year’s rodeo season in Houston, Cody Johnson, Jon Pardi and Randy Houser brought it home, breaking the record as the highest concert-only attendance in Rodeo Houston history. “HISTORY MADE! 80,203 guests showed out tonight at RODEOHOUSTON for an unforgettable performance by Cody Johnson, Jon Pardi and Randy Houser shattering the all-time concert-only attendance record.” What an amazing way to close out the night, and what a stellar headliner choice, with incredible special guests making it possible. View this post on Instagram But watching these three powerhouses of men take the stage was not the highlight of the night for many in the crowd. During Cody Johnson’s set, he surprised the crowd with the one and only Carrie Underwood for a duet of their hit song “I’m Gonna Love You.” The two released the single in 2024 as the lead single off Johnson’s deluxe edition of Leather. The track racked up an impressive 109 million streams on Spotify alone en route to a Top 10 spot on both of Billboard’s country charts, Hot Country Songs (#7) and Country Airplay (#3). Additionally, it’s received quite a bit of love at the award shows, scoring nominations for Music Event and Visual Media of the Year at the 60th ACM Awards, as well as Musical Event and Music Video of the Year at the 59th CMA Awards. Johnson recalled hearing the song and knew he wanted Carrie Underwood on the track with him, unaware that she had already been sent the tune. Johnson’s dream came true, and Johnson graciously signed on for the duet. The two sang the song live together in the studio in just one take, creating a magical cut of the track. That same magic took place last night when Underwood casually walked out on stage to join Johnson for the hit duet. The roar in NRG Stadium was unreal as the crowd welcomed her to the stage. With Underwood being the professional that she is, she didn’t waste a beat getting into the song, and the two laid down a performance that will go down in Rodeo Houston history. Check it out: @melissamonell5 Best concert ever and a surprise appearance!! #houstonrodeo #codyjohnson #carrieunderwood #countrymusictiktoks #houstonrodeo2026 ♬ original sound – UGCwithMel And check out another clip of their performance: @jazmin.rodriguez416 Cody Johnsn brings Carrie Underwood out at Houston Rodeo @Cody Johnson @Carrie Underwood #rodeohouston2026 #imgonnaloveyou #specialguest #carrieunderwood #cojonation ♬ original sound – Jazmin Rodriguez These two do not miss, and this live version of the song gives me chills. What a way to close out the rodeo. Next year’s closing performer has some big shoes to fill… Just for fun, be sure to give the studio version a listen before you go: The post Cody Johnson Surprises Record-Setting Rodeo Houston Crowd With Carrie Underwood For Incredible “I’m Gonna Love You” Duet first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Yep, Ronnie Dunn's seen the video of Kacey Musgraves performing 'Neon Moon' dressed up as him — and he thinks it's hilarious. Continue reading…