Published 7/22/2023

Jason Aldean – Try That In A Small Town

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We’ve seen quite an uproar lately about the recently released song by Jason Aldean, Try That In A Small Town. Aldean is one of the biggest country music stars on the scene right now, so when he drops a new song, it makes headlines… and gets airplay.

But this single, and the controversy it caused, went viral beyond what a new song from a country star would normally generate. It entered into the realm of woke/cancel culture.

Subsequent to the songs release, CMT, which stands for Country Music Television, pulled the song from their rotation. They have not commented further, but many are saying ‘that its lyrics and message are offensive.”

“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” – Jason Aldean Tweet in response to CMT

While we’re all watching the ongoing news stories and looking at the threads in our social media feeds, I started checking out some other country song that have the same message and are along the same lines as Aldean’s new tune. These songs have all been out for a few years and granted, these artists aren’t in the same league in popularity that Aldean is.

But do you think these songs would fly in today’s hyper-sensitive world? Here’s Five Country Songs That Are Worse Than Jason Aldean’s, Try That In A Small Town.

Earl Dibbles, Jr is an alter-ego of singer-songwriter, Granger Smith. This song is about what a lot of regular, blue-collar people think makes this country great. Guns, girls, kickin’ butt, working hard, Uncle Sam, winning wars, trucks, freedom, and Patriotism. (The last one seems to be a theme in these songs that is particularly offensive to some people.)

Smith has released 11 studio albums and one live album. So he’s been at this for awhile. In 2016, when this song was released, Smith was all about the rowdy, hot girls totin’ guns, American bravado that makes these type of songs so popular.

Granger Smith recently announced that he was giving up country music and touring to go into full-time Christian minstry. But we can still enjoy his in your face songs from a few years ago.

Earl Dibbles, Jr – Merica

Video from the Granger Smith Youtube channel.

Granger Smith – Like A River

Buddy Brown

Buddy Brown is a country music  singer/songwiter who is mainly an online, social media influence. He released his first track in 2009, and it went viral.

His first album release was in 2012, Mason Jar. It went to #34 on iTunes Country Music charts – and he didn’t have a record deal. He has continued to write and release songs and  EPs and viral videos, which have continued to become more and more popular.

Brown is very outspoken about his country roots, he is from a small town outside of Jackson, MS, and his pride for America. His Youtube channel has over a million subscribers, and he regularly releases short videos in which he espouses his country wisdom and traditional values. Along with some parody songs.

In this song Brown talks about what things would be like if we still had a strong America that actually led the world and took care of our problems in a straight-forward way. There is some really strong opinions here about our justice system and how we should hand out punishment and retribution.

Many of traditional Americans will agree with the message in this song. It will really piss a lot of other people off. But I’m pretty sure that’s what he was going for.

Buddy Brown – If This Country Still Had Balls

Buddy Brown – Truck Sessions

Bryan Lewis

Bryan Lewis is a singer/songwriter/performer from a small town in the state of Ohio, USA. He writes a lot of funny, novelty songs, but he’s a really good songwriter.

He doesn’t have much of a presence online, so I couldn’t find out a lot about him. No Wikipedia article, website hasn’t been updated since 2016 (yikes!), and there’s not a lot on his Youtube Channel.

He seems to be somewhat active on his Facebook page. There’s some recent posts there. And you may be able to find him on other social media outlets.

Regardless of all that, This song definitely fits in this posts’s line up. He released it in 2016, and it’s received over 16 million views on Youtube. Plus it’s on other channels, and there are different versions of it, so it’s probably quite a bit more than that.

Lewis uses the metaphor of his dog to describe a bunch of behaviors that we see from people a lot these days. And it seems they all support one particular political party. Consequently, he thinks his dog might be Democrat.

Bryan Lewis – I Think My Dog’s A Democrat

Bryan Lewis – Gettin’ There

Creed Fisher

Creed Fisher is from Texas and is proud to be a redneck. God Bless Him for it.

Fisher has been around for awhile, and has 11 albums under his belt. His debut album came out in 2012, and he has established a reputation of writing songs for the common man, a strong work ethic, gun rights, love of his country. Pretty much anything that is politically incorrect.

Because of his lyrical content, Creed is considered one of the new “Outlaw Country” artists. I don’t know if that’s even a thing or if there are any others, but that seems to be a moniker that has been hung on him.

I’m not sure if I totally agree with the lyrical hook of this song, I’m a little more on the freedom of expression side. But, something tells me that Fisher probably really is to. You see, the key is, we take this stuff seriously, but not literally.

I might not like someone burning the American flag. And it may make me feel like I want to kick sombody’s ass. But we don’t get wrapped up in our irrational feelings, our emotions. We have self control. I like the song. That doesn’t mean I’m going to go pound the crap out of somebody.

This is the newest song on the list, it was just released in December, 2022. But Creed Fisher has put his thoughts down on paper, set it to music and let everybody know: “If You Have A Right To Burn My Flag…” (I’m sure you can figure out what the second part of that line is.)

Creed Fisher – If You Have A Right To Burn My Flag

Creed Fisher – Whiskey And The Dog

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Of course Skynyrd had to make the list. Remember what site you’re on? But they have some worhty contenders to be included here.

Lynyrd Skynyrd released their “God & Guns” album in 2009. It was the band’s thirteenth studio album. That means by this time, the post-crash band had released more studio albums than the original band.

I remember when it came out that it stirred somewhat of a controversy by so openly the subjects of… well, God and guns. Subjects that even back then were not well liked by the mainstream press, or established radio and other media.

It fits here as well as the others because let’s face it, this is a country song. Not a particularly well-written one, but is is in the modern country genre. A lot of songs by Ronnie Van Zant and the original band were on the country side as well. Made In The Shade, Four Walls Of Raiford, Ballad Of Curtis Loew, and others.

And some had the subject of guns as well. Saturday Night Special, and Gimme Back My Bullets, ostensibly about wanting another hit on the Billboard charts, “with a bullet.”

I think releasing a song these days about God & Guns would probably stir up even more trouble than it did a few years ago.

Lynyrd Skynyrd – God & Guns

Lynyrd Skynyrd T Shirt

Patriotic Country Songs

Country music, more than any other genre, has a long tradition of love of country, family, and traditional values. And there many more songs like this. I call them protest songs. We’re familiar with the protest songs of the 60’s, folk music was big on those. Then we had the war protest songs through the years, depending on what the current war was.

But these artists, and a lot of us these days, are protesting people wanting to take our freedoms from us, along with our traditional family values. We can see in several different parts of our culture and society that many people are becoming fed up with it.

This is not by any means a difinitive list of these type of songs. If you have a favorite, or one that you think should be on the list, leave a comment below. Or hit me up on any of my social site. Hope you enjoyed my 5 Songs Worse Than Try That In A Small Town.