Try That In A Small Town

Jason Aldean, the so-called country music artist who gave us Big Green Tractor (I had to look that up, thank you) is getting a LOT of exposure for a song that quite frankly, isn’t very good. No, I’m not talking about the tractor song as that one’s at least kinda catchy. I’m talking about Try That in a Small Town.

The reason I say Aldean is a “so-called” country music artist is because his new song isn’t all that country. Sure, it has hate, racism, and ignorance you can find in some country music and it’s flying up the charts in yeehaw states. It even has twang. But it also has chunky distorted electric guitars with a solo that would fit on a 1980s Def Leppard album. So one question I have is why this is still allowed on the country charts but Lil Nax X’s Old Town Road was removed for not being country enough Hmmm? I’m sure that’s not about race.

Jason Aldean wanted to send a right-wing message that’d appeal to goons and in doing so, he forgot to put any quality into the song. But, if you’re “owning the libs,” then you don’t need quality because the goon base will buy your droning morbid drivel to ride that wagon with you. Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis have both expressed support for it and that alone tells you it’s racist.

Aldean defended his song in a tweet, saying the song refers “to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief. Because they were our neighbors, and that was above any differences.” He must have grown up in a very angry community.

In the song, he goes after people who sucker-punch on sidewalks, who carjack poor sweet little old ladies at red lights, who rob liquor stores with guns, who curse and spit on cops, and people who stomp and burn flags.

To all that he sings…

Well, try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
Around here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won’t take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don’t
Try that in a small town

Sounds like he’s expressing violence, right? The lyrics also include…

Got a gun that my granddad gave me
They say one day they’re gonna round up
Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck

So while he’s angry about crime in big cities, he’s also upset over something that’s not a threat, people coming to take his granddad’s gun from him. Also, he’s singing that free speech isn’t protected in his kind of small towns because “stomping” and “burning” a flag is constitutionally-protected speech, you fucking hick.

Sheryl Crow, who’s probably really regretting that duet with Kid Rock right about now, tweeted at Aldean, “I’m from a small town. Even people in small towns are sick of violence. There’s nothing small-town or American about promoting violence. You should know that better than anyone having survived a mass shooting. This is not American or small town-like. It’s just lame.”

In case you don’t recall, it was during an outdoor Jason Aldean concert on the Las Vegas strip where a mass shooter murdered 61 people and injured over 800 others. Crow is right. Aldean should know better, but he doesn’t. Instead, he endorses more gun violence in his stupid hate anthem.

Aldean’s tweet also said, “In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests. These references are not only meritless, but dangerous. There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it- and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage -and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music- this one goes too far.”

He claims there’s not a single lyric in the song that references race, but we’ve all heard dog whistles before, you redneck. We know what you mean when you sing, “Full of good ol’ boys, raised up right, If you’re looking for a fight.” The people who listen to your music might be morons (and they are), but we’re not.

He’s referring to the video for the song which includes violence from protests over the police murder of George Floyd. What he didn’t address is why he filmed the video of the sight…wait for it…of a lynching.

On the website Outkick.com, David Hookstead (whoever that is) defends Aldean and refers to the “woke mob” trying to “cancel” him. But Aldean chose to film his video where a LITERAL mob kidnapped 18-year-old Henry Choate, a black male, from jail and lynched him.

Aldean filmed the video at the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, where the lynching happened in 1927, and which is also the site of a race riot in 1946. Aldean does NOT refer to any of this in his defense of the song which tells you he knows he’s wrong and that quite possibly, he chose the location for the video because of the lynching. He’s sending a hateful message condoning killing black people who disrespect police. Aldean knows what’s he doing.

Aldean also didn’t address how he actually feels about Black Lives Matter in his tweet, but he’s angry about so much. But you know what’s not angry enough to write a song about? He’s not angry about Donald Trump trying to steal an election he lost. He’s not angry about a white nationalist insurrection trying to install a dictator. He’s not angry about Nazis chanting “Jews will not replace.” He’s not angry about “both sides.” He’s not angry about the murders of George Floyd or Heather Heyer. He’s not angry about systemic racism. He doesn’t address why people are angry at cops.

But he says if you try any of that “shit” in a small town, like the one where he grew up, then something violent is going to happen to you. By the way, that small town he grew up in isn’t so small.

Aldean was born and raised in Macon, Georgia. Macon is not Chicago, New York, or Atlanta, but it’s not Mayberry either. Macon’s population is over 150,000, which is larger than Charlottesville where tiki-torch Nazis marched and committed murder. Aldean is 46 and Macon didn’t have a population explosion after he moved to Nashville or wherever he hangs his cowboy hat. It was over 100,000 while he grew up there. And, it’s not the safest city in Georgia.

Macon has one of the highest crime rates in the country and if you live there, you have a one in 27 chance of being the victim of a violent crime, like maybe a Jason Aldean-endorsed assault from a hillbilly. And yes, Black Lives Matter has protested peacefully in Macon.

While Aldean showed violent protests in his video, he ignores the fact that 93 percent of all Black Lives Matter protests were peaceful. The Outkick fuckwad referenced America’s cities being “destroyed.” Here’s a fun fact: Five percent of Black Lives Matter protests were met with violence by police compared to just one percent at other demonstrations. That’s weird.

Republicans love to call liberals “snowflakes,” and Aldean tries to present himself as a tough guy in his song, but he cries like snowflake beyotch when anyone calls him out.

Jason Aldean and his ilk can cry like little snowflake beyotches all they want, but there’s no way of getting around that he wrote a hateful song with a racist message. And even if you take all that out of the song, it still sucks.

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