New Song: "Zealots In A Small Town" (Patreon)

I'll be blunt: I don't expect a lot of you to listen to this one over and over. But I had to do it. A fairly generic country singer named Jason Aldean recorded a fairly generic country song called "Try That In A Small Town". Unfortunately, no matter how he tries to defend it, it's a paean to being ignorantly racist and angrily violent. It was filmed at the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, TN, where a Black man, Henry Choate, was lynched by a white mob in 1927. It has lots of clips of people rioting, intending to evoke antifa and Black Lives Matter protests, while the song says what'll happen to those protesters if they come to a small town.

In other words, it's racist AF.

So I couldn't leave it alone.

Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalkCarjack an old lady at a red lightPull a gun on the owner of a liquor storeSounds like Corbin or Dalton on a Saturday night

Cuss out a cop, spit in his face,I can do it ‘cause I'm whiteBut you better know your place

We’re zealots in a small townSee how far you can make it through town,Around here, we're not very brightAnd if your accent's funny or your skin is brownYou might not make it through the nightWe’re zealots in a small town

Got a gun that my granddad gave meAlmost shot my sister when I was eightYou can pry it from my cold, dead 2nd Amendment

We’re zealots in a small townYou want abortions and don't want gunsYour books and drag shows are obsceneYou got DEI, ESG, and CRTI don't even know what they mean*We’re zealots in a small town

Full of good ol’ boys, raised far right,And we'll beat your woke ass out of spiteWe’re zealots in a small townNo socialism in a small townWe’re zealots in a small town

(Matthew Shepard 

I didn't write this song, but I approveSo do lots o’ small towns down southBoring country grooveAnd my racist mouthWe’re zealots in a small townSandy Hook is a small townUvalde’s a small town

Songwriters: Kelley Lovelace / Neil Thrasher / Tully Kennedy / Kurt Michael Allison

Image from Wikimedia: "The Lynching of Laura and L. D. Nelson, 25 May 1911"

* DEI -- diversity, equity, inclusion  ESG -- environmental, social, governance (a framework used to assess an organization's business practices and performances on various sustainability and ethical issues); some right-wing politicians have spoken out or even made laws against factoring in its effects when governing  CRT -- critical race theory (the idea that there are systemic disadvantages to being a non-white person in the United States, and maybe something should be done about that)