What readers have to say about Jason Aldean's 'Try that in a Small Town' controversy | Letters

Editor’s note: Readers responded over the controversy concerning country music star Jason Aldean’s music video for “Try that in a Small Town.” Two of The Tennessean’s columnists LeBron Hill and Cameron Smith wrote differing perspectives on the matter. Find letters to the editor below. If you would like to add your voice to the conversation, email letters@tennessean.com with a letter for 250 words or fewer and include your full name, town/city and ZIP code plus a phone number for verification purposes.

Why Aldean supporters should listen to their critics

In Cameron Smith’s July 21 column defending Jason Aldean’s song, “Try That In A Small Town,” Mr. Smith claims “Conservative Americans don’t have a secondary channel of communication” with each other. Conservatives like Aldean “don’t hide [their] message.”

Really? Has Mr. Smith not had to explain to his children, as I have to mine, why people chant “Let’s Go Brandon” at football games and slap the slogan on their bumpers? Has he never wondered why some people fly American flags with an extra blue line?

Was he ever curious why so many motorists in Tennessee – and 11 other states, all of them below the Mason-Dixon Line – have license plates that feature a coiled snake?

I suppose it’s not a dog whistle if you can hear it plainly.

Aldean sings, “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they’re gonna round up.”

One can understand why so many interpreted Aldean’s lyrics as the threat of a lynching; He sings the very definition of the term.

I take Aldean at his word that he did not know the shameful history of the courthouse at which the controversial music video was filmed. But someone involved in the production should have done a Google search. The information was not hard to find.

The song, and the video, were intended to provoke and to divide. Instead of affecting umbrage, Aldean should listen honestly to those he offended. And so should Mr. Smith.

David Rivera, Brentwood 37027

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What is going on with country music?

Re: “CMT removes Jason Aldean's 'Try That In A Small Town' video from rotation,” July 19

I am extremely disappointed with the action of the present-day profile of CMT concerning “real” America!

I was brought up on a country ranch in Nebraska and listening to WSM on Saturday night was our best night. And now, as someone coming from a small town, to have CMT pulling a controversial Jason Aldean video is so far from reality.

I find myself reaching a point that not only CMT, but even the thought of Nashville, makes me sick.

I am a 30-year military veteran and have listened to country music most of my life. This action by CMT has certainly made me have second thoughts about what has happened to country music and especially the Nashville crowd.

Hal Richards, Sun City, Arizona 85351

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There are great things happening in Columbia

I'm writing about Jason Aldean's country music video "Try That in a Small Town."

The video has stirred up much controversy, so much that it has been pulled by the CMT network. It has been critiqued by many news agencies.

I live in Columbia where the video was filmed with our courthouse in the background. Much has been said in these reports about our town's history. Some of our history is unquestionably horrible.

I live on a biracial street in Columbia. At the same time the controversy about the video was being aired, here are some of the real time happenings going on in our community: True Vine Church was conducting vacation Bible School, one of our neighbors was getting ready for a new school year as an instructor for the deaf. Another neighbor has recently returned from mission work in Africa. My next door neighbor's family has helped with their mother who just was widowed after many years of marriage. A few doors up there is a pastor and his wife. She works at our nearby community college.

All of these families are working for the betterment of the community and even world. I'm thankful to be here in Columbia.

I'm sorry about some of the extreme imagery and words in the video. In real time Columbia there are some very good things going on.

Belinda French, Columbia 38401

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Hold writers accountable too

Why are the writers getting a hall pass?

They created the song; Jason Aldean only sings it.

Per Billboard: “Though Aldean recorded ‘Try That in a Small Town,’ he's not a writer on the song. The track was penned by Neil Thrasher, Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy and Kelley Lovelace.”

John Lomax III, Nashville 37205

Aldean ignores small-town problems

RE: Jason Aldean and small towns.

Hey, Jason, are these the same small towns with skyrocketing fentanyl deaths, meth addiction, veteran suicide rates?

The same small towns that sold 50 of their core local businesses down the river to Walmart, Waffle House and Home Depot?

The same small towns in the center of America's obesity epidemic whose main road is lined with toxic fast food joints? T

The same small towns that leave the streets on the Black side of town unpaved, poorly lit, with tainted water and open sewers? The same small town whose motels are crawling with bedbugs?

Where the Confederate flag is still cool?

As for small town citizens gathering to protect their own, every major metropolis on the planet comprises numerous neighborhoods that function as small towns regarding local issues.

This country music trope of celebrating dysfunction, racism, white supremacy closes out of town. Toby Keith worked it to death 20 years ago.

Jim Blake, Hoquiam, Washington 98550

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jason Aldean's 'Small Town' song controversy: How readers responded