Ella Langley, Other CMA Nominees This Year Played Jackson’s Million Dollar Cowboy Bar

Jackson’s legendary Million Dollar Cowboy Bar has spent decades being a stop for some of the biggest names in country music, including a wave of this year’s Academy of Country Music Award nominees.

Multiple 2026 ACM nominees have taken the stage at the Jackson venue, underscoring its role as both a proving ground for rising artists and a draw for established stars.

That includes seven-time nominee Ella Langley, whose breakout hit “Choosin’ Texas” has been camping at the top of the country music charts for weeks, and who headlined the Cowgirls at the Cowboy Fest at the bar in October 2025.

Among the awards Langley up for this year are Entertainer of the Year, Female Artist of the Year and Artist-Songwriter of the Year.

Other 2026 Academy of Country Music nominees who’ve played the room include Riley Green, Tucker Wetmore, Avery Anna, and Carter Faith. 

The storied stage adds another rising star to its lineup next month with Hudson Westbrook, a newly minted Male Artist of the Year nominee for the 2026 Academy of Country Music Awards.

And bar booking manager Justin Smith said there’s at least one more nominee on deck, but fans will have to wait until late summer to find out who.

Up-And-Comers

The bar has hosted legends like Willie Nelson and Hank Williams Jr., and it continues to serve as a proving ground for the next wave of country stars.

Smith says the bar’s reputation has always hinged on being cool enough that big artists want to play there, even when they don’t have to. 

In the 1970s, acts that were already selling out massive arenas still would squeeze in shows at The Cowboy purely for its coolness — and the bar works hard to keep that reputation, he said.

One of the biggest wins for the Jackson venue is when an artist plays a packed arena one night, and then rolls into Jackson Hole the next, treating The Cowboy as a must-stop on the tour. 

Smith said that kind of loyalty reflects years of effort to earn artists’ trust and stay true to the vision set by longtime owner Bill Baxter.

From Alabama frontman Randy Owen delivering decades of hits in an intimate setting to a rare acoustic set from Hank Jr. on Nov. 20, 2020, the Cowboy Bar has built what Smith calls an “embarrassment of riches” in country music history.

That reputation continues to grow alongside the success of artist who’ve played there.

When Langley dropped her second album “Dandelion” on April 10, the venue was tapped as one of just eight locations nationwide to help celebrate the release, a nod to The Cowboy's influence far beyond Wyoming.

Since playing The Cowboy in 2023, Green has stacked up six No. 1 songs on country radio, including his most recent hits “Worst Way” and “Don’t Mind If I Do,” making him the first artist since Taylor Swift in 2012 to score back-to-back chart-toppers he wrote entirely himself.

Wetmore’s trajectory followed a similar arc. 

After he performed in Jackson last September, his career has continued to explode, racking up roughly 900 million global streams and launching him onto an international tour stretching across the United States, the U.K., and Europe.

Kevin Costner and his band Modern West packed the place for two nights in October 2023 — their only public performances in three years — surprising fans by weaving through the crowd mid-show.

There was Carly Pearce headlining an all-female festival in 2022 while holding top female vocalist titles. 

Songwriter Natalie Hemby walked out into the middle of a sold-out crowd in 2022 and sang her hit “Crowded Table” unamplified, “and The Cowboy was as quiet as a church. That was a goosebump moment,” recalls Smith. 

Moments like those are why the place keeps its reputation, Smith added.

He fondly remembers making the Jenny Toleman music video for “Married in a Honkytonk.” The video was filmed entirely inside The Cowboy. 

“She cast a bunch of the local dancing community, had local musicians as her house band, and we used so much fog from the hazers that you could barely see the bartender,” Smith said. “The cleaners let me have it the next day when they had to dust the entire bar, front to back, ceiling to floor.  Needless to say, we don’t use hazers anymore.”

More Music

Smith said Jackson Hole itself plays a role in the draw. 

Artists quickly figure out that the remote mountain town isn’t so hard to reach, and once they get there, it sells itself. 

Between outdoor adventure, wildlife, photography, and the slower pace, the stop becomes less of a detour and more of a destination. Midweek shows also make the venue attractive to touring schedules looking for flexibility, he said.

Looking ahead, Smith said the team is gearing up for the seventh annual Million Dollar Music Fest on May 24, an event built to balance tradition with momentum. The goal is to honor the spirit of Western music while putting the hottest new names on the same stage as established stars.

That philosophy shows up in this year’s lineup pairing newcomers like Westbrook and Anna — both nominated for top new artist honors — with veteran two-time TNN/Music City News Country Awards Entertainer of the Year Neal McCoy and longtime chart-toppers Lonestar. 

For The Cowboy, it's about nostalgia and keeping the next chapter loud.

Contact Kolby Fedore at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com

Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.