Songfacts®:

• When it comes to the importance of family and community, Jason Aldean doesn't mince words. In this country-rock song, he takes you straight to the heart of a close-knit town where everybody knows everybody and watchful eyes are always on the lookout.
  
  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
  
  "'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," Aldean Tweeted. "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."
• Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, Kelley Lovelace, and Neil Thrasher joined forces to pen "Try That In A Small Town." From the moment Aldean heard the song, he felt an instant connection with its lyrics. It captured the anxiety and unease he and many others around the world experience on a daily basis.
  
  "It's like everyday you turn on the news and see something crazy happened or some heartbreaking story," he said during an interview on the Bobby Bones Show. "This is just a song that talks about like you wouldn't get away with that stuff in a small town. It's just a different mindset and different kind of values in small town America that I wish everybody else would kind of adopt. It'd probably help some of things that are going on in the world."
• The music video shows Aldean and his band performing the song in front of the the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, interspersed with news footage showing various crimes and protests. It caused a good amount of controversy, and on July 17, 2023, CMT pulled it. The next day, Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones Tweeted: "As Tennessee lawmakers, we have an obligation to condemn Jason Aldean's heinous song calling for racist violence. What a shameful vision of gun extremism and vigilantism."
  
  Aldean vigorously defended the song and video, tweeting, "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."
  
  A few days after the controversy blew up, Aldean's camp quietly removed footage from the video a Black Lives Matter rally in Georgia that was projected on the courthouse.
• The controversy was a boon to this song. "Try That in a Small Town" debuted at #2 on the Hot 100 chart after CMT pulled its video from rotation, resulting in a surge of attention. It surpassed the #7 peak of "Dirt Road Anthem" to become Aldean's highest chart-placing. "Try That in a Small Town" rose to #1 in its second week on the chart.
  
  The song also topped the Country chart, becoming Aldean's first #1 on that tally since "Burnin' It Down" in 2014.
• On the Billboard Hot 100 dated August 5, 2023, country hits took the top three spots for the first time since the chart's inception in August 1958. "Try That in a Small Town" was at #1, Morgan Wallen's "Last Night" at #2, and Luke Combs' "Fast Car" #3.
• Maron Morris, who was beefing with Aldean's wife Brittany, had this to say about the song in an interview with the LA Times: "I think it's a last bastion. People are streaming these songs out of spite. It's not out of true joy or love of the music. It's to own the libs. And that's so not what music is intended for. Music is supposed to be the voice of the oppressed - the actual oppressed. And now it's being used as this really toxic weapon in culture wars."