I rarely admit this, but I have friends in Alabama. If you're looking for a deal on a pontoon boat, I might know someone.
The video out of Montgomery will not be used for the next Jason Aldean smash hit "See What Happens When You Try That In a Small Town".
First off, the song doesn't exist yet because Aldean is waiting for his fifth favorite Smashville songwriter to join the four that gave us "Try That In A Small Town". According to the singer himself, "If two guys from L.A. and two guys from Chicago can write a hit about living in a small town, imagine what happens when you add a guy from New York! We're adding more fiddle and autotune to make the next single even more authentic."
Second, even though the Montgomery video is a classic representation of law abiding citizens confronting and overpowering rampaging thugs who have attacked an authority figure, Aldean's management isn't sure the video sets the right tone. "We just don't think our audience believes white people would do that. That would never happen in the small town our high rise songwriters make up."
The truth is the latest video of entitled drunk white people being stupid is different than most because it includes the truly satisfying plot twist of justice being served.
It might show up in a music video one day, but definitely not one from the bro country bin. The least connected to reality of all musical genres, modern pop country is a kind of diet pop for the ears written by committee in a conference room and sung by suburban boys in cowboy hats.
Some people might see real a little differently. Like those people coming to the rescue in the Montgomery video. Or a guy just up the road that might be easier for you to relate to.
When Tyler Childers won Emerging Artist at the Americana Music Awards a few years back he told the crowd that Americana stood for nothing and that he was a country music singer. How's that for real?
My sources tell me a room full of hired guns did not write that acceptance speech for him.
That's because Tyler is not a creation of Nashville like the city kid carrying the faux town banner. He's the country kid who made Nashville. He reveals more truth in a single verse than a room full of suits in a lifetime.
Tyler's latest video for his song "In Your Love" was co-written by Kentucky novelist Silas House, telling the story of love between two men in a coal mining town. The images of life in the video would be familiar to anyone from the coalfields. The images of love between two men are less familiar, but no less real in eastern Kentucky.
Tyler made the video for his gay cousin that taught him to sing but moved to Chicago and never came back. He wanted CMT to have a video that spoke to him and others from eastern Kentucky.
If CMT is actually playing "In Your Love", they have come a long way. But not near as far as playing a song that features the downfall of a bunch of doofuses on a pontoon boat.