Try That In A Small Town isn’t just a country single, it became a political flashpoint.
Jason Aldean released the track on May 22, 2023, ahead of his album Highway Desperado.
Initially simmering quietly, it wasn’t until the video’s release and subsequent backlash that the song catapulted to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The lyrics hit a nerve across cultural and political lines, but what is the song actually saying, and why did it set off such a fierce debate?
Try That In A Small Town opens with a list of violent, anti-social behaviours often associated with big cities, sucker punching a stranger, carjacking, spitting in a cop’s face.
Aldean follows this with a stark warning: “Try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road.”
The chorus paints rural communities as places where lawlessness doesn’t go unanswered, where people “take care of our own”.
Though Aldean didn’t write the lyrics himself,the credit goes to Kelley Lovelace, Neil Thrasher, Tully Kennedy, and Kurt Allison,he’s backed the message wholeheartedly.
He’s said it echoes the values he grew up with in Macon, Georgia, a city some critics note is far from a ‘small town.’
The song’s uproar really escalated with the July 2023 release of its music video.
Aldean is shown performing outside the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee,a location with a dark racial history that added fuel to the fire.
What wasn’t initially publicised is that the courthouse was the site of the 1927 lynching of Henry Choate, a Black teenager dragged from jail by a white mob and murdered.
That location, combined with footage of looting, police confrontations, and protests, some of which were pulled from international stock reels, including clips from protests in Canada, fueled accusations of racial dog-whistling.
Within days of the video’s release, Country Music Television (CMT) pulled it from rotation.
Although CMT didn’t publicly state a reason, the move followed a rising tide of criticism and calls for its removal.
Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones condemned the track as a “heinous song” promoting “racist violence and gun extremism.”
Others, like country artist Travis Tritt, defended the song, saying it tapped into the sentiments of working-class listeners.
Republican hopefuls Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley even played it at rallies, framing it as a cultural pushback anthem. In response to the uproar, Aldean stood firm.
“There isn’t a single lyric in the song that references race,” he tweeted. “I’m showing you what happened,I didn’t do it, I didn’t create it,it just happened, and I saw it, and I’m not cool with it.”
He added that his goal was to highlight a sense of community, not division: “Where I grew up, we took care of our neighbours regardless of differences of background or belief.”
Fan commentary online was equally polarised. Reaction videos praised the track for its defiance and tone.
One YouTube reviewer claimed, “It wouldn’t fly in my town either,” while others called out what they saw as hypocrisy, pointing out that Aldean fled the stage during the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting and later criticised how easy guns were to obtain.
In terms of metrics, the controversy did more to boost the song than any label campaign could have.
The music video garnered over 20 million views in two weeks. It became Aldean’s first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and also charted at No. 9 in Canada and No. 5 in the Philippines, experiencing the biggest sales week for a country song in over a decade.
The track was later added to his Highway Desperado album, released in November 2023, which followed his previous 2022 single “That’s What Tequila Does.”
Whether seen as a rural values anthem or a veiled warning to outsiders, Try That In A Small Town became more than a song.
It became a symbol,divisive, widely debated, and undeniably powerful in how it sparked both conversation and reaction.
Does the song offer a genuine expression of community pride,or does it lean too heavily on division to get its message across?
That might depend on where you call home.
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Jason Aldean Try That In A Small Town Lyrics
Verse 1
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
Chorus
Well, try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
‘Round 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
Verse 2
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
Chorus
Try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
‘Round 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
Bridge
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
Chorus
Try that in a small town
(See how far ya make it down the road)
‘Round 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, mm-mm
Outro
Try that in a small town
