Try That in a Small Town by Jason Aldean

Saturday, August 5, 2023 – August 11, 2023 All day

Artist: Jason Aldean Weeks at #1: 1 week Chart dates: August 5, 2023

About

This song was initially released by Jason Aldean in in May of 2023, with the music video being released in July. In the song Aldean talks about crime in large cities, before singing about how that behavior is not tolerated in small towns because people care about their communities and have the means to protect themselves. The song has generated much controversy after the release of the music video to Country Music Times and subsequent removal from CMT. Critics of the song accuse the singer of including racial dog-whistles, while supporters and the singer himself argue that the lyrics makes no explicit mention of race and instead only mention crime. Controversy also arose over the location of the music video, which was filmed at Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, TN. The courthouse was the site of a lynching of a black man in 1927, and a race riot in 1946. Critics argue that this is evidence of an underlying racial message, while supporters state that both incidents were relatively unknown prior to the release of the music video and the singer and his production company had no prior knowledge of either incident.