Turnpike Troubadours Edge Tyler Childers in Epic Quarantine Tournament

Oh, so all you bastards thought it was sand bagging when four records from the Turnpike Troubadours ended up in in the Albums of the Decade list? Sure, perhaps absence makes the heart grow fonder, and the indefinite hiatus of the boys from Oklahoma has us all foggy-eyed in recollection. But according to one industrious Twitter user’s social experiment in the midst of the Coronavirus quarantine, the Turnpike Troubadours rule the roost.

Pitting a total of 64 country acts against each other bracket style from a pretty well-curated field of both mainstream and independent performers, the Turnpike Troubadours came all the way from an 11th seed to defeat Tyler Childers in the final round to emerge victorious in a close decision of 52% to 48%. And this was not just in a field of lightweights. The elite eight also included Chris Stapleton, Luke Combs, Eric Church, Thomas Rhett, Morgan Wallen, and Brooks & Dunn.

Performers were placed into four regions: Outlaw Country, Pop Country, Modern Country, and Band/Group Country. Nearly 40,000 votes were cast just in the first round of this extremely unscientific but nonetheless riveting scrimmage for the aggressively bored. But hopefully there are no losers here, well, aside from folks like Luke Bryan and Kane Brown that both got bounced in the first round.

Hopefully the exercise wasn’t just about turning music into competition, but helped spread the word about some cool artists whose names don’t always appear beside mainstream acts and legends, and went on to prove they have large and loyal fan bases, at least on Twitter.

“Thank you to everyone who participated and shared this everyday,” said John Miller, a teacher and coach from Kentucky who conducted the tournament. “I hope y’all enjoyed it and that it was something you looked forward to everyday. God Bless.”

To see the start of the tournament, CLICK HERE.

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