According to consequence.net, country singer Jason Aldean shared a video for his new song “Try That in a Small Town.” Aldean ended up in a controversy as the song’s accompanying video was revealed to have been filmed at the site of an actual lynching in Tennessee.
The song sells as being anti-crime and pro-community with the beginning lyrics condemning carjackings and liquor store robberies.
But everything ends after the fourth line where Aldean begins to speak truth about the literal crimes with protesting, which is actually not only legal but constitutionally protected.
Aldean shows his anti-protest sentiment in the music video, which shows him playing with his band in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee.
Images are projected of anti-police brutality protests from recent years, all while Aldean sings, “I recommend you don’t try that in a small town.”
A tweet has since gone viral explaining that the courthouse was the site of a brutal lynching in 1927, in which ab 18 year old Henry Choate was killed and hung from the building.
“Jason Aldean shot this at the site where a white lynch mob strung Henry Choate up at the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn., after dragging his body through the streets with a car in 1927. That’s where Aldean chose to sing about murdering people who don’t respect police.”
Choate’s death is an example of the violence has impacted Black communities and oppressed populations in America to this day. The protests that Aldean has made seems to be calling for a more humane approach to organizing society.
Also, Aldean claimed that his latest song was a message to bolster the sense of community, but the controversy stems from his choice to record on the site where an innocent teenager was murdered by a vigilante mob less than 100 years ago; a scene that created a dissolution of community.
Although the singer claimed that he wished to spread a message of community and togetherness, many others have accused him of creating further divide and “promoting violence.”
Whatever Aldean’s goal and message with his latest release was, it has drummed up much attention on social media over the past several days; both from people who support the artist’s message, and those who admonished him.
Aldean has addressed the critics in a long statement posted to social media.
“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.”
The statement adds: “As so many pointed out, I was present at Route 91-where so many lost their lives- and our community recently suffered another heartbreaking tragedy. NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart. Try That In A Small Town, for me, 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.”
The statement continues with: “Because they were our neighbors, and that was above any differences. My political views have never been something I’ve hidden from, and I know that a lot of us in this Country don’t agree on how we get back to a sense of normalcy where we go at least a day without a headline that keeps us up at night. But the desire for it to- that’s what this song is about.”
Leave a Comment