Controversy has swirled over a certain “small town” song of late, a song sung by a country singer who just recently appeared in Sullivan County, playing to an enormous crowd of both visitors and locals.

I’m talking, of course, about Try That in a Small Town and singer Jason Aldean, who was a lightning rod for controversy long before the song’s debut. From his appearance in blackface on Halloween in 2015 to his wife’s political clothing line that she’s reportedly created specifically “to troll liberals,” there’s been plenty to talk about before he wandered into the small town space. 

And yet, here we are.

Aldean’s song – which it bears mentioning he did not write – lists out a series of infractions that  it indicates occur only in urban spaces as one dare not “try” them in a small town. 

For those who haven’t yet heard it, it’s a list that includes holding up liquor stores while armed, cursing at police, carjacking and stomping on the American flag. It warns listeners that these best not be attempted in a small town as, “I’ve got a gun that my granddad gave me / they say one day they’re gonna round up. / Well that s*** might fly in the city / good luck / Try that in a small town.”

Controversy over the song hit its crescendo last week with the release of a music video shot at the site of a 1927 lynching of a Black teenager by members of a white mob. 

I could spend the rest of this column diving deep into the racial issues at hand with the song and video, but let’s face it  — the internet is already full of thought pieces on the topic, some better than others. 

Certainly with Aldean’s past racist behavior, it’s not hard to read the subtext of his lyrics, but as a statement released with his video labels the song as simply an ode to “the unspoken rule” that “we all have each other’s backs and we look out for each other” in small towns, I couldn’t help but notice that Aldean isn’t actually from a small town at all. 

The singer  was born and raised in Macon, Ga., a city of more than 150,000 people that’s part of what’s known as the Macon–Warner Robins Combined Statistical Area. The latter area is home to nearly half a million residents.

Aldean now resides in Nashville, Tenn., the 21st most-populous city in the United States with more than 690,000 residents.  

To put this in perspective, the entire population of Sullivan County (in the winter at least) is just shy of 80,000 people. 

Aldean’s “town” has nearly double the population of our entire county, which is home to 15 townships, six villages and 55 individual “towns” with their own zip codes. 

Callicoon, the hamlet in which I was born and raised, has a population of 206 people. It’s my small town, and to quote another small town song – this one by John Mellencamp – it’s where I can breathe.

Despite Aldean’s seeming insistence that trying any number of crimes in a small town will result in a violent end, I’ve sadly seen most of the items on his list over the years right here in our small towns. 

We’ve seen stores robbed at gunpoint, cops cursed out, cars stolen. 

It’s rare, fortunately, but each infraction is also met with reasonable reactions. Justice is served via our law enforcement and courts system. No need for a vigilante mob to get involved. No need for the “ good ol’ boys,” as Aldean calls them, to get involved. 

But here’s what else happens in small towns. 

We plow seniors’ driveways and hold fundraisers for families who fall on hard times. 

We create meal chains when someone’s house is hit by a tornado and show up with sump pumps when someone’s basement floods. 

We stop when we see someone’s dog running loose, catch it and bring it home to them so it doesn’t get hit by a car. 

We mount flags on our telephone poles to celebrate the graduating class of high school seniors, and we throw parades to celebrate our farmers and our emergency service workers. 

This is how “we all have each other’s backs and we look out for each other.”

If Jason Aldean wants to know what life in a small town life is actually like, I suggest he try living in one.