One of the greatest days in all of sports. It’s the first day of March Madness (I’m not counting the play-in games, sorry Miami of Ohio), with 64 teams fighting to become the national champion. And that means that it’s also time for our annual Whiskey Riff Madness tournament. This year, we’ve got 64 of the best country artists still making music today, and we’re going to put them head to head to see who’s your favorite and who will come out on top of 2026 Whiskey Riff Madness. The rules for this one are 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, and as we were creating the bracket there were quite a few surprises with the seeding…and quite a few that we’ve already got our eye on for potential upsets. We know everybody has different taste in music, which is great, so honestly I have no idea how this one’s going to shake out. Are the Texas country fans going to take over and knock off all the Nashville artists early? Is Morgan Wallen going to dominate like he does on streaming and the chart? Or is there a dark horse with a passionate fanbase who’s going to surprise everybody? I have no idea. But I can’t wait to find out. Here’s the bracket for this year’s tournament: And here’s a closer look at each region: South East Midwest West So now it’s time for you to do your part. Voting is open NOW for the Round of 64, and the first round ends at 11:59 PM central time on Sunday, March 22. You can vote down below, or by clicking the link here, and you can vote as many times as you want if you have a favorite that you want to see move on to the next round. We always have some close matchups, and I think this year has more potential for upsets than any tournament we’ve done, so it truly is anybody’s game. So with that, we’ll get to voting and see who’s going to come out on top of 2026 Whiskey Riff Madness. The post WHISKEY RIFF MADNESS 2026: Vote For Your Favorite Country Artists Starting NOW first appeared on Whiskey Riff.