The Sweet Sixteen is here.
March Madness kicks back off tonight with four straight days of college basketball. But before the games start back up, we’ve got some business of our own to attend to: Our annual Whiskey Riff Madness tournament.
This year for our annual tournament we teamed up with our good friends at Rock the Country, a festival for “We The People,” to bring you a bracket for “We The People” featuring 64 of the most red, white and blue-blooded American country songs of all time – and let you, the readers, vote for your favorites.
Toby Keith is certainly looking like a favorite to win it all this year (which is really no surprise), but before we get into the next round, let’s take a look at some of the results from the round of 32.
There were actually a few results that surprised me in this one. Over in the East region, we had Tim McGraw’s “If You’re Reading This” going up against Montgomery Gentry’s “Something To Be Proud Of.” And I’ll be honest, I expected Tim’s emotional hit to take that one – but the voters felt differently, and sent Montgomery Gentry on to the next round. Hard to be mad about that one.
“It’s America” by Rodney Atkins is also looking like a sneaky underdog so far, knocking off “Flag On The Wall” by Chris Janson in the first round and following up that performance with a dominant victory over “Color Me America” by the legendary Dolly Parton. That could spell trouble for Justin Moore’s “Small Town USA,” which was another surprise in the round of 32 with a 20-point victory over Charlie Daniels and his hit “This Ain’t No Rag, It’s A Flag.”
But Justin has two shots at making the Elite Eight, because his poignant “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home” absolutely destroyed his friend Blake Shelton’s “Kiss My Country Ass” to easily move on to the next round.
In the battle between country music legends, Johnny Cash managed to knock off Merle Haggard’s “Okie From Muskogee” and send “Ragged Old Flag” on to the Sweet Sixteen, while in a matchup of Toby Keith versus…himself, “American Soldier” came back after being down most of the round to secure the win over “Made In America.”
And in one of the biggest underdog stories of the tournament, Whiskey Myers is once again moving on after “Ballad Of A Southern Man” managed to sneak by Hank Williams Jr. and “The American Way” in maybe the biggest upset we’ve seen so far. We may have underestimated the Whiskey Myers fans when we put that one at a 12-seed…
Of course “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” once again had the most dominant victory of any of the matchups, getting just under 89% of the vote against Jason Aldean’s “Fly Over States,” so it’s hard not to have that one as the favorite right now…but we’ve learned to never count out Whiskey Myers in these tournaments either.
Regardless, the matchups are going to get a lot harder.
Here’s a look at the bracket heading into the Sweet Sixteen:
And here’s a closer look at each region.
South
East
Midwest
West
Voting is open NOW for the Sweet Sixteen, and ends at 11:59 PM central time on Sunday, March 30.
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.
If the last round was any indication, some of these matchups are going to be CLOSE, so throw a few extra votes to your favorite song if you really want to see it stay alive. And of course if you haven’t already, start making your plans to celebrate America in person this summer at Rock the Country, coming to a small town near you with some of the best country music that would make Toby Keith raise a red solo cup to toast America.
This year, Rock the Country will feature a stacked lineup featuring headliners Kid Rock, Nickelback, Hank Williams Jr. and Lynyrd Skynyrd, along with performances from incredible artists like Travis Tritt, Treaty Oak Revival, Tracy Lawrence, Aaron Lewis, Big & Rich, Shenandoah, and more. The lineup varies by city, so make sure to check out the closest one to you and get your tickets soon before they’re sold out and you’re left on the outside looking in like the British were in 1776.
Rock the Country Dates:
April 4-5 – Livingston, LA
April 25-26 – Knoxville, TN
May 2-3 – Poplar Bluff, MO
May 9-10 – Ocala, FL
May 30-31 – York, PA
June 13-14 – Hastings, MI
June 20-21 – Little Rock, AR
July 11-12 – Ashland, KY
July 18-19 – Sioux Falls, SD
July 25-26 – Anderson, SC
The post WHISKEY RIFF MADNESS: American Madness Presented By Rock The Country – Sweet Sixteen Voting Is Live NOW first appeared on Whiskey Riff.
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