Cultural Context of “Try That in a Small Town”

If my Facebook news feed is any reliable barometer, Jason Aldean’s recently released song, “Try That in a Small Town” is incredibly popular. Of course, as is common in social media, my sources are skewed. I grew up in rural Oregon and served in the U.S. Marine Corps. Therefore, my life’s accumulation of personal contacts has a bias toward an appreciation of that song that is not widely shared.

It has been banned from many platforms. I first heard about this song when it was banned from CMT (Country Music Television). I don’t watch that channel. Country music has never been my preferred taste, but I immediately asked our Amazon Echo to play it, to judge for myself what was so bad. Alexa replied: “I cannot play that because explicit filter is on.” Having young kids in the house, we indeed have a filter on our sound system. This song does have the “s-word.” Country music isn’t gospel music.

Yet, as far as music goes these days, it’s milquetoast. Judge for yourself. Here are the lyrics:

Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk
Carjack an old lady at a red light
Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store
Ya think it’s cool, well, act a fool if ya like

Cuss out a cop, spit in his face
Stomp on the flag and light it up
Yeah, ya think you’re tough

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

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

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

Full of good ol’ boys, raised up right
If you’re looking for a fight
Try that in a small town
Try that in a small town

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

Try that in a small town
Ooh-ooh
Try that in a small town

And here is that banned video.

It certainly threatens vigilante justice, that if one were to sucker punch somebody, carjack an old lady, or rob a liquor store in a small town, the perpetrator would not get very far down the road. This just seems tame compared to Ice Cube rapping “I didn’t have to use my AK,”

Eminem and Rihanna threatening violence in response to domestic violence,

Maroon 5 telling a story of a man shooting his girlfriend’s lover after finding them together,

or Gwen Stefani singing about a physical fight between girls on a track at school like it’s a cheer routine.

Violence appears routinely in art across mediums, including popular music hits that never grab headlines. Seeing “Try That in a Small Town” as an unprecedented homage to civil strife seems misplaced. That is not making an excuse for violence. It’s just recognizing that this is art, not an attack on anyone.

Rather than seeing this country song as a civil war anthem, it’s better seen in the context of a long line of country songs that romanticize rural America in contrast to urban America, a somewhat obvious theme for country as a music genre.

This is a well-traveled country road, traveled by Ray Price’s “City Lights” (1958):

Stonewall Jackson’s “Life to Go” (1958):

Bobby Bare’s “Detroit City” (1963):

Bobby Bare’s “Streets of Baltimore” (1966):

Ben Peters’s “San Francisco is a Lonely Town” (1969):

Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee” (1969):

Buck Owens’s “I Wouldn’t Live in New York City (If They Gave Me the Whole Damn Town)” (1970):

Dottie West’s “Country Sunshine” (1973):

George Jones and Tammy Wynette’s “Southern California” (1977):

Merle Haggard’s “Big City” (1982):

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s “Meanwhile Back at Mama’s” (2014):

In conclusion: it’s just a song.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.