No, I Will Not Try That or Even Go to Your Small Town

Photo by Michael Lucas, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

In what should obviously be a glaring example of just how stupid of a country we have become, a terrible bro-country song written by a team of failed English majors in Nashville has risen to the forefront of the culture wars.

I really tried my best to ignore the noise from this one, but I see far too many people, people I respect, defending this flaming sonic garbage dumpster as if their lives depended on its success.

The worst part is, they aren’t defending the artistry, the music, or even the artist himself. They are defending the idea that it’s okay to dole out vigilante justice, it’s okay to use tumultuous imagery from other countries to make a point about your own, and worst of all that it is okay to be tacitly racist so long as you do not come out and say, “man, I wish we could still lynch people.”

As a matter of fact, my favorite part about this controversy as a whole is that Aldean and Co., including, presumably, his label want us to believe that the song they wrote, and video they shot, about vigilante justice in a small town for real or perceived (if you think burning the American flag is illegal, I am afraid I have some bad news) crimes was innocently filmed outside of a courthouse where a lynching took place. I would not for a second give these people the benefit of the doubt.

I grew up in a small town. Could not wait to leave said small town. You wanna know why? Because the image Aldean paints in the song he did not write is pretty much how it is in small towns. No one is actually looking out for their neighbors, crime is as rampant as Dollar Generals, and people are downright unfriendly to anyone different than them. (Read: anyone with skin color that is a darker shade of pale.) Thems the facts, and you can dispute them all you like with whatever anecdotal evidence you choose to cherry pick. The fact is, I am a mixed-race person that grew up in a town where I was ostracized simply due to my race. I lived it. Still live it to this day.

While David Thornton authored an excellent and thoughtful piece about the political ramifications, he tap dances around the “what are Republicans gaining from defending this garbage.” In doing so he misses the point that this is who they always have been, and that the Overton window has shifted so far that this is their actual political messaging. It has been for a while now. I really wish “moderate” or “both sides” folks would get that. Sadly, I fear it is much too late.

This is not the first “country” music adjacent controversy, it is certainly not the last. Remember when Hank Williams, Jr. said something about a pretty typical D.C. golf game with members of opposing parties (Obama, Biden, Boehner, and Kasich)? I seem to remember Hitler and Netanyahu being mentioned in the same breath, like that makes any sense. These people have been telling us who they really are for years now.

So y’all can listen to your bro-country, thump your chest, pretend like you don’t get unreasonably angry about trivial things like the Barbie movie, the color of the skin of the actor playing a role, Bud Light, Coke being too “woke”, drag queens reading children stories, or whatever other banal culture war stuff that is being dredged up this month. Me? I prefer to harsh my mellow and would like to discuss a song about stuff that actually happens in small towns, yes even yours.

Gary Clark, Jr., a man who for the most part writes his own songs, grew up in the south. He describes being victimized by overt racial taunts, something I too experienced in my own small town…in the north. Clark, Jr. is an accomplished guitarist, songwriter, actor, producer, etc. So, when he decided to purchase a 50-acre farm outside of Austin, Texas to raise his family, he probably did not expect to be interrogated by a neighbor.

Well guess what, here is exactly what happens when you try to live in a small town:

“In an interview on All Things Considered, Clark told NPR’s Michel Martin that a neighbor came up to him last year and asked who lived on the 50-acre property that Clark had bought in Austin with his wife Nicole Trunfio to raise their two children.

“I do,” Clark responded.

“There’s no way you can live here,” the neighbor responded.

His neighbor didn’t believe him, he said, and insisted on speaking with “the homeowner,” despite Clark repeatedly insisting, “This is my house.”

The whole time, Clark’s 3-year old son was watching, and later asked, ‘Daddy, why is he so mad?’”

This interaction spurred Clark, Jr. to write this absolute banger of a track seething with righteous anger. The first time I listened to it, I felt how powerful and raw it was. No hodgepodge group of failed English majors contributed to this song. It still gives me chills to this day.

So, when a clown like Aldean tries to minimize or walk back the clear racial undertones in the song he did not write, anyone who is fond of critical thinking should know it’s all bullshit. That interaction above is what happens in small towns. No one is interested in you, or being neighborly, or watching out for you. The white dude next door wants to know why the black guy is walking around his own property.

Now Clark, Jr. typically writes very laid-back slow jams or guitar ballads. A lot of soul and funk influences. There are some rockers I enjoy on his albums. I mean, a good example is to listen to This Land and then Pearl Cadillac. Both songs are about growing up, but one is gruff and to the point about shitty small towns in the south and their overt racism and the other is about making your momma proud.

Really what I’d like to see from all of this is people challenging those who defend a song like Aldean’s. If you see it on social media, ask what they think about the reference to grandpa’s gun. Ask them to open the police blotter in their local newspaper and discuss the level of crime happening in their small town. What do they think of the people that did try that in a small town when compared to people protesting racial injustice?

In any event, I’d side with the guy who actually struggled with real life small town BS and his story of overcoming that to be a grammy nominated and winning artist over a the guy born in Macon, a city of 150,000, who was privately educated and had to struggle for nothing. Did I mention that Gary Clark Jr. actually writes his own songs?