Sporting an Atlanta Braves T-shirt, country music superstar Jason Aldean performed his chart-topping hits on Saturday night for a sold-out show at Lakewood Amphitheatre.
The Macon native is touring this summer while weathering controversy over his latest single, “Try That in a Small Town,” which is earmarked to be on a new album he plans to release this fall. The song decries big-city crime, but is getting criticized as a song that celebrates a brand of vigilante justice where townspeople take care of their own.
CMT recently pulled the video for the song after it was learned the backdrop for the video, the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, was where Henry Choate, an 18-year-old black man, was lynched in 1927. It was also the scene of a 1946 race riot.
Aldean has defended “Try That in a Small Town,” saying in a statement the song wasn’t meant to deal with race and was a tribute to communities that come together to support each other in times of trouble. It’s also been noted that the singer didn’t choose the Maury County Courthouse as the site to film the video.
With the song garnering national headlines, last week it became Aldean’s first No. 1 hit on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.
He’s already had plenty of success on the country music charts. Aldean’s 2005 self-titled debut album turned out a No. 1 country single, “Why,” and two top 10 songs, “Hicktown” and “Amarillo Sky.”
He’s been on an unbroken roll since then, piling up 27 No. 1 songs over his 10 subsequent albums.
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