Rolling Country 2023

the Nate Silver of country racism

remember when tim mcgraw released "sundown heaven town"

Adeem The Artist was really good when I saw them play a month or so ago.

their album is excellent ... released at a terrible time (early December of last year) in terms of getting the attention it deserved.

Adeem is awesome, it's been great to watch them catch fire a bit this year.

I've been enjoying Isbell trolling him, that's for sure.

Some of his tweets have been good, and while it was interesting to learn that Aldean didn't write the song himself-- Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, Kelley Lovelace and Neil Thrasher wrote "Try That in a Small Town," bashing Aldean for not writing the song himself seems kinda less effective as a troll dis as lots of singers use songwriters.

FWIW, I don't think Aldean has had a single writing credit since something like 2009, which is impressive. Even Morgan Wallen (who Isbell has also trolled for his team of writers) has several on his latest record.

I think one of Isbell's lines of attack was essentially that with no skin in the writing game, Aldean was in no position to defend the song.

Seriously how do you defend the content of a song you weren’t even in the room for? You just got it from your producer. If you’d been there when it was written, you’d be listed as a writer. We all know how this works. https://t.co/4trCw0S98k

— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) July 20, 2023

Feels somewhat beside the point

For sure, which is why it's trolly. But it also sort of underscores the/a crux: Aldean has no personal stake in this song, it's purely cynical/mercenary, which is what makes it extra offensive. If he was more involved or more talented, he could have tried to make it better, or less offensive, or maybe even worse or more offensive, but as it stands, it's just laziness, because it represents zero effort or investment on his part.

Honestly, that's not unrelated to a lot of what's going on with the GOP these days: just a total, cynical lack of conviction. They parrot what they need to say to appeal to the fabled base without really giving a shit about anything, let alone consequences. It's about the sale, not what's being sold.

Has Aldean responded to any of his tweets?

I doubt it. A few others have on his behalf, though:

What really gets me about this is that it’s saying “if you don’t believe you can physically overpower me, you aren’t allowed to publicly disagree with me.” What does that say to the people in your life who aren’t big strong boys? They just have to shut up? https://t.co/MRL8trpgBl

— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) July 20, 2023

Aldean and his MAGA supporting wife Brittany ( whom Maren Morris referred to as “Insurrection Barbie") are just in their Fox News right wing world and not aware of much beyond that, likely including the ugly history of where the video for the song was filmed.

Asked whether she believes Aldean had direct knowledge of the Maury County Courthouse's frightening history, Phillips points to interviews where Aldean has boasted, "I haven't read a book since high school." Regardless, Phillips describes a long legacy of white supremacy in Columbia and neighboring communities — including Pulaski, Tenn., where the Ku Klux Klan was founded — that should not have escaped the consideration of the robust music industry personnel behind the video.

That's from this NPR article about the long history of rural vs city theme, and the history of it in country music

https://www.npr.org/2023/07/22/1188908968/jason-aldean-small-town-vs-city

But it also sort of underscores the/a crux: Aldean has no personal stake in this song, it's purely cynical/mercenary, which is what makes it extra offensive.

see for me i've always found this particular line of criticism used by isbell to be a bit odd not just bcuz it's beside the crux of the issues that ppl have w/ wallen & aldean, but also because i've always understood country as a place where people didn't really care who wrote the song, as long as the song is good? like, the idea of the song -- the hit -- is so sacrosanct in nashville, even more so than in other genres including pop, that ppl (certainly w/in the industry including artists themselves) see the singer to be a vessel for some sort of greater power that has delivered to us this great Record. the message is more important than either the messenger or its author. ppl like george strait & reba who are some of the most commercially successful country artists of all time pretty much wrote barely if any of their songs. maybe country fans' attitudes towards authorship have waxed and waned over time, but the auteurist idea of the singer also being the songwriting & musical genius behind the music feels to me like it's been given far more weight in rap & pop than it ever has in country.

look, it's great marketing for isbell. he's preaching to his choir when he talks about authorship & places himself athwart modern mainstream country. i don't think *he* is being cynical but it's great brand work for him anyway. in general i think his voice is a very valuable one as a counterbalance to conventional industry wisdom & culture. but i don't buy the idea that aldean is selling something cynically bcuz he wasn't in the room when he wrote the song, or that it makes for "lesser" art (lmao, in this case) -- but this message board raised me to be a poptimist so that is how i see things. it almost gives aldean too much credit imo to position this as cynical marketing... of course he is intending to court/create controversy, but i think the guy is actually just an asshole w/ repugnant politics who is seeking to connect w/ likeminded people at the expense of common decency (this would be one major way in which he is different than wallen, who has dutifully re-conformed to societal norms while peddling his hugely successful album)

Yeah, I don't think Aldean has given much of anything a second of thought, which is the reactionary way (exacerbated by being an asshole dumbass). Whereas someone like Isbell gives everything a lot of thought in a Socratic effort to be less of an asshole dumbass. Two different approaches. Reading a bit more into it, plus taking his other posts into consideration, I get the impression Isbell finds it kind of a personal affront that someone wouldn't even make an effort to at least participate in the songwriting process. For sure Isbell is something of a poptimist himself, despite his own personal rockist inclinations. But I think that's because he considers himself a rock musician first and foremost and cedes authority to artists in other lanes. Certainly mainstream country straddles the line in a unique way. On one hand, it's often all about keeping it real, projecting authenticity, honesty, that sort of vibe, while at the same time embracing the tools and artifice of pop (session dudes, hired songwriters, chasing trends). Again, I think Isbell is largely trolling because he's a position to do so, knowing that most people can't write as well as he can, but at the same time is probably legit irked by the success of someone in his ostensible field who doesn't even try despite having the tools and means to do so.

I got into a fight on another blog when several writers said I was too clever by half by not thinking Isbell's response particularly witty or at best beside the point (it might've mattered a little if another non-writing country singer had called him out).

Another angle I am seeing on this is from folks who say that critics should have ignored the song and video because calling it out just gives it more attention and encourages more conservatives to embrace Aldean for a song that wasn't initially doing well. Not sure I buy that. I don't think ignoring a hateful song and video by a big star is a good approach and will make the song and the message disappear from the country music world. Ignoring it might have lessened the chance of crossover attention, but I think CMT only dropped the video because of the attention (and yeah I get that people can see video elsewhere and hear the song elsewhere).

Lefsetz in his email is pushing the line that the left should just ignore the hate -- Don't be knee-jerk, think about this. Stop amplifying heinous behavior. You're only emboldening believers. If you don't talk about it, it doesn't exist. Now people know more about Jason Aldean than they do about Biden and his economic policies, something the left has been trying to amplify for weeks under the label "Bidenomics." Once again, the left has lost the battle. Will it lose the war? Yes, if it continues to turn nothingburgers into conflagrations.

I will say it really speaks to something about the right wing for this guy to sing a track that has a key moment where it's anti-gun reform, a guy who probably just missed out on getting killed on stage in the worst gun massacre in US history. Still fighting for the rights of guys like St*ph*n P*dd*ck after all that.

I think Isbell is giving this chud way too much credit obv and probably attempting to debate him on deeper points is def beside the point.

Can't imagine Isbell giving much of a shit about sacred Nashville traditions, the old timers he associates himself with were songwriters.

Lefsetz is such a numbnuts

when does cmt even air videos? late night? (a quick perusal of the schedule online suggests they're aired between 4 and 9am...) from the billboard 'exclusive' article revealing it had been pulled: "It is unclear how many times CMT played the video before pulling it on Monday," i.e. they weren't actually monitoring video play on the network themselves + were likely tipped off to the removal by someone who cared enough to pay attention, which frankly was almost no one until the story broke

As someone who has lived many years in small towns, I notice that their cops do get shot by other local residents, hardly ever by people from cities, except occasionally those in the same metro area (not like all those sinister aliens on The Andy Griffith Show).

Although maybe somebody will now compare statistics (not me). Of course it's also about how to deal with with such an event. (My thoughts, the end)(dyl has covered most of them).

Regardless of statistics and debates on same, point of course is that Aldean presents a false dichotomy. Thank yew and good night.

FWIW, Aldean is from Macon, which is not a particularly small town. I guess he's just singing about the small town in all of our hearts. Well, maybe not all of us ...

The copy of Mellencamp's "Small Town" in all of our hearts.

Probably not Bronski Beat, that's for sure.

"Try That With A Small Town Boy"

Jason Isbell's point about "fight me!"-type bullies brought back some depressing memories.

As a former resident and activist in rural Kentucky, I regularly encountered these Tough Guys who build their entire identity around the attitude expressed by “Try That In A Small Town” or numerous other songs of a similar nature – with the obligatory decals on their trucks - and I naively thought I could convince a few of them into joining efforts towards defeating the corrupt elected officials that gave huge tax incentives to multinational conglomerates in exchange for a small number of dangerous, low-paying jobs; or at least trying to fight back against the wealth-hoarding executives that ignore worker-safety laws and pollute the environment, all while harassing anyone trying to unionize (before the inevitable departure for another locale with even worse worker-safety laws).

Of course, they were not interested.

Way to stand up for your townsfolk, Tough Guys. When someone actually does “Try That” in your small town, you weak-ass shitbags roll over and lick the boots of the oppressors. You’re totally fine with having to boil your water before you drink it, or re-electing the Republican rep that denied the Medicaid expansion that would finance your kids’ health care when they got too close to the toxic sludge near the creek, but God forbid someone accidentally brush past you at the local bar, or a person of the wrong race or accent drives through your town!

Ugh

Jason Aldean addresses racism controversy surrounding his song ‘Try That in a Small Town’ and pledges to continue performing it:

“I love our country, I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bullshit started happening to us.” pic.twitter.com/CixDNBwret

— Pop Base (@PopBase) July 22, 2023

So he just wants to make American great again, or something like that?

https://variety.com/2023/music/news/jason-aldean-concert-defends-vigilante-song-try-that-small-town-1235677520/

But the only example that Aldean offered in his defense of the song at the Cincinnati concert was something that doesn’t come up in either the lyrics or the music video: mass shootings.

“I know a lot of you guys grew up like I did,” Aldean said. “You kind of have the same values, the same principles that I have, which is we want to take our kids to a movie and not worry about some asshole coming in there shooting up the theater.

Hate to break the guy's heart, but afaict mass shootings in small towns aren't typically perpetrated by outside agents coming in to cause trouble.

"Try That With A Small Town Boy"

lolol

Here's some music to blow the bad shit away:
Flaco, the current Flaco Jimenez studio album, has too much meh vocals overhead, but ends with a fine pair of instrumentals:

"Loa Amores Del Flaco"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNcww523gIA

"Hasta La Vista"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lx1Wm5HFiA

and omg whatever else this is, it's fun, w somewhat spacey live sound; he plays on most of it, I think, even does an accordion and voice duet w Raul---songs do not play in the order listed:

Flaco Jimenez Vs. The Mavericks---Greatest Hits 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K28b70-_YnI

Does Flaco ever sing? There's one track where an agile little voice matches the accordion, don't think it's Raul----this set might sound better on YouTubeMusic, but somehow I don't want it to, at least not yet.

I had no idea Flaco was still alive. The Mavericks ... underrated? At the least Raul Malo has always been a heck of a singer.

jfc this idiot bringing up mass shootings as if there wasn't just one pretty recently in a "small town" during which the cops famously sat on their hands terrified to go in while kids were being massacred

Hey, in our small town you don't tell our cops what to do.

the Mavericks are fantastic

In Time was a peak: RIYL Los Lobos and early The Band, in terms of drawing all or many of their roots and interests into the signature sound---and now they've got a 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, with bonus tracks (Blue Vinyl Ltd. has sold out, but there's digital, CD, maybe another LP at some point)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnaoZ64VeyQ

RIYL Los Lobos and early The Band

I'd also maybe add Chris Isaak, for obvious reasons.

Yeah, and I didn't mean that they ever, as far as I know, actually sounded like The Band, but, for In Time anyway, had more signs of that syncretic Big Pink process going on, drawing deeper from the well for more colors, more shades at least, not radically altering their style, but doing it in a way that seemed like a logical development and a refreshing, exciting one. Big Pink was kind of high strung, while the Mavericks and Los Lobos are usually cooler with it, taking a variety of roots etc. as a given (Exception: to me, The Mavericks En Espanol sounds like Mario Unchained, Mario practically busting a gut at a talent show, and being awesome! But I wanna hear more of The Mavericks.)

Also they sound like they probably like the Texas Tornadoes and some other bands and recording situations involving Flaco and Doug Sahm, who was never shy about musical variety, while always sounding unmistakably like himself (that voice, that weed)

And prob should have left out The Band, but yeah Isaak, so Orbison, and his Latin inspirations, whoever they were.