Try That in a Small Town
Jason Aldean
Community pride wrapped in a threat
What do these signals mean?
- Edifying: Points the heart toward God, truth, hope, or love.
- Worth Weighing: Real good and real concern together. Test it before you take it in.
- Take Caution: Leans toward what could dull or mislead. Approach carefully.
- Consider Avoiding: Celebrates what Scripture warns against. Little here builds up.
Weighed against Scripture
“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”
The song's implied threat of community-enforced payback sits in tension with the call to leave vengeance to God rather than taking it into one's own hands.
“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”
Scripture entrusts the sword to governing authorities, not to a community of 'good ol' boys.' The song's appeal to informal communal enforcement runs against this framework of ordained justice.
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
Loving mercy is part of the same calling as doing justice. A song that emphasizes consequences for outsiders and says nothing of mercy or reconciliation only tells half that story.
The song presents itself as a defense of small-town community solidarity against lawlessness. That impulse toward protecting the vulnerable is a real good. But the mechanism it reaches for is intimidation and the unspoken promise of vigilante response, not justice or mercy. Clean-cut values wrapped in a warning can still normalize something worth examining: the idea that righteous communities enforce their own order outside established law.
One masked profanity ('s**t'). The opening verses catalog crimes (carjacking, assaulting a cop, flag-burning) as examples of what not to do rather than celebrations of them. Language is largely clean but the framing carries an edge.
No spiritual orientation in either direction. The song is about communal identity and implied retaliation. There is real value in community loyalty, but the posture leans on threat and the implied promise of extrajudicial consequence rather than justice or mercy.
Aldean frames this as a defense of small-town values and law and order. That intent is understandable, but the song is structured as a warning that crosses that line, and the implied remedy is communal force rather than lawful accountability. The music video's controversy (featuring footage of real racial unrest) complicates the intent further for many listeners.
When you hear this song stir something in you, is it the love of community and the protection of the vulnerable that rises up, or is it something closer to the satisfaction of imagined payback, and do those two feelings point you in the same direction?