{"id":1304509,"date":"2019-02-28T04:13:55","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T11:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1803459"},"modified":"2019-02-28T04:13:55","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T11:13:55","slug":"jason-aldean-man-about-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/jason-aldean-man-about-towns\/","title":{"rendered":"Jason Aldean: Man About Towns"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:ao:image:cmt.com:658284?width=1200&amp;height=675&amp;.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"\/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"byline\">by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/morrise\/\" title=\"Posts by Edward Morris\" rel=\"author\">Edward Morris<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\">6h ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>Pop the champagne and pour. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists\/jason-aldean\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Jason Aldean<\/a> turns 42 today.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s been pumping out hits and drawing big crowds since 2005, and it is in tribute to those achievements that we now lift our glasses.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe it\u2019s because \u201cHicktown\u201d was his first hit that Aldean returns so regularly to small-town life in his songs. In country music, geography is important. It\u2019s the notion that who you are is where you\u2019re from. Or where you claim to be. Via the songs he\u2019s chosen to record, Aldean tells us he\u2019s not only resided in \u201cHicktown,\u201d but in \u201cCrazy Town,\u201d \u201cThis Nothin\u2019 Town,\u201d \u201cTwo Night Town\u201d and \u201cRearview Town,\u201d as well. Moreover, he asserts that he and his buddies, wherever they\u2019ve lived, have left \u201cTattoos on This Town.\u201d Many other of his songs allude to modern small-town life even if they don\u2019t attach specific names to the places.<\/p>\n<p>So what are Aldean\u2019s small towns like? Let\u2019s see:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"listicle-container\">\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cHicktown\u201d (No. 10, 2015, written by Kenny Alphin, John Rich, Vicky McGehee)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>There\u2019s almost a desperate sense of celebration, a grab-it-while-you-can attitude here \u2014 an equation of frantic activity with fun: \u201cWe let it rip when we got the money \/ Let it roll if we got the gas.\u201d The people depicted are caricatures verging on the grotesque: \u201cWell you can see the neighbor\u2019s butt crack nailin\u2019 on the shingles \/ And his woman\u2019s smokin\u2019 Pall Malls watchin\u2019 Laura Ingalls \/ And Granny\u2019s gettin\u2019 lit and headin\u2019 out to bingo.\u201d Surely it will come as no surprise that the narrator is scornful of the \u201cfolks in the city [who] party in martini bars \/ And \u2026 like to show off in their fancy foreign cars.\u201d To quote Pogo, \u201cWe have met the enemy, and he is us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cCrazy Town\u201d (No. 2, 2010, Brett Jones, Rodney Clawson)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>\u201cCrazy Town\u201d is Nashville, the home of country boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 musical fantasies. As the lyrics say, it\u2019s \u201cHollywood with a touch of twang,\u201d and it\u2019s pretty much like a small town since it confines itself to Music Row and the saloon thicket of Lower Broadway. \u201cIt\u2019s a crazy town of neon dreams\/Everybody plays, everybody sings.\u201d But unlike life in real small towns, in Crazy Town, you can hit the jackpot: \u201cOne year they repossess your truck \/ And the next you make a couple million bucks.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cTattoos on This Town \u201c(No. 2, 2011, Michael Dulaney, Wendell Mobley, Neil Thrasher)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>In all these small-town anthems, it\u2019s youth \u2014 not the town itself \u2014 that the singer cherishes. Just as tattoos are reminders of younger and wilder days, so are the drag racing tire marks that linger on the roads, the graffiti still visible on the overpass and the rope burn on the limb overhanging the swimming hole. \u201cIt [the town] sure left its mark on us \/ We sure left our mark on it \/ We let the world know we were here, with everything we did.\u201d Unlike the chip on the shoulder implicit in some of the other songs, this one comes across as sweetly wistful. Compare it to the frantic intensity of \u201cGonna Know We Were Here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cThis Nothin\u2019 Town\u201d (No. 41, 2012, busbee, Neil Thrasher, Wendell Mobley)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>Don\u2019t make snap judgments, this song counsels, just because the town looks sleepy. Even in a \u201cnothing town,\u201d people are falling in love, throwing parties and savoring the sunset. There\u2019s a touch of defensiveness here\u2014which is stock in trade for a lot of country songs. \u201cIt might look a little laid back to you \/ But it ain\u2019t all just porches and plows.\u201d Not that there\u2019s anything wrong with porches and plows, mind you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cTwo Night Town\u201d (No. 18, 2014, Brett James, Tim Nichols)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>Presumably, a two-night town is one that exhausts all its diversions in that time. But here we have someone who\u2019s found more: \u201cIt was women, it was sinning, it was alcohol \/ It was everything the Bible says will make a man fall.\u201d Add to all this the fact that his woman has walked out on him. With nothing left to lose and much to forget, he muses,\u201d I think I\u2019ll spend four nights in a two-night town.\u201d Sometimes it\u2019s not the town but the townie that\u2019s the problem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cRearview Town\u201d (No. 24, 2017, Kelley Lovelace, Bobby Pinson, Neil Thrasher)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>This is one of the most eloquent songs Aldean has ever recorded: \u201cThis ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 but a rearview town \/ Broken hearts and rusted plows. \u2026 It ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 what it used to be \/ Population minus me. \u2026 I could tough it out, but what\u2019s the use.\u201d Has anyone ever quit his or her hometown with greater disappointment and rage?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"description\">Edward Morris is a veteran of country music journalism. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a frequent contributor to CMT.com.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1803459\/jason-aldean-man-about-towns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Edward Morris 6h ago Pop the champagne and pour. Jason Aldean turns 42 today. He\u2019s been pumping out hits and drawing big crowds since 2005, and it is in tribute to those achievements that we now lift our glasses. Maybe it\u2019s because \u201cHicktown\u201d was his first hit that Aldean returns so regularly to small-town [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1304509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 18:30:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1304509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1304509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1304509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1304509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}