Small Town Southern Man

"Small Town Southern Man" is a single by American country music artist Alan Jackson. The lead-off single released to his album Good Time (see 2008 in country music), the song reached the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts in March 2008, becoming Jackson's twenty-third Number One hit on that chart, as well as his first since "Remember When" in February 2004.^[1]

1 Content
2 Music video
3 Chart performance
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Content

Described by the magazine Country Weekly as a "loping, fiddle-and-steel-guitar-driven song",^[1] "Small Town Southern Man" is set in a moderate tempo and composed of three verses. Its lyrics tell of the life of Jackson's father, and how he was "raised on the ways and gentle kindness of a small town Southern man".

When Jackson wrote the song, he did not intend for it to be a tribute to his father or grandfather, although he did draw from his own ancestry as an inspiration. According to him, the song is actually a tribute to anyone with a rural upbringing such as his own: "Wherever you go, there are rural people that are working for a living and raising familes. They all have the same qualities and goals as a small town Southern man."^[1]

[edit] Music video

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The music video of "Small Town Southern Man" portrays Jackson singing at an informal location as he observes the life of his father (i.e., the "small town southern man"). At first, the father appears young and the setting indicates the beginning is set in the 1940s, and alludes to marriage when the man extends his hand to a woman to request a dance. The next frame portraying the couple is during the wedding, where the "southern man" kisses his newlywed bride, and three girls (foreshadowing the four that Jackson sings of) smile at the couple. Settings indicate this happens a decade later, in the 1950s. Then, the couple dance as the "southern man" appears to be enlisted in the military, adorning military clothing and badges, and it appears to be the 1960s. The military uniform is complimentary of the line "[and] he stood for Uncle Sam". Still in his military uniform, the man then dances with his young daughter. When someone walks across the screen, and once again the southern man is dancing with his wife again. Shaggy hair, long sideburns, and the mustache he now adorns indicate by this point it is late 1960s-early 1970s. The next clip appears to fast-forward from the 70's to the nineties, as the southern man appears late-middle aged as he dances with his wife, his daughter appears to be an adult woman with a young girl of her own. This lasts only briefly, as Jackson sings of death coming to the southern man. The video portrays people offering sympathies to the now-elderly widow of the southern man. Then, a young boy asks the widow to dance much in the manner that the late southern man did in the beginning, indicating a repetitive cycle of "small town southern men".

[edit] Chart performance

Chart (2007-2008)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	42
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay	25
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	89
Canadian Country Singles Chart	3
Billboard Canadian Hot 100	62

Preceded by "All-American Girl" by Carrie Underwood	Billboard Hot Country Songs number-one single March 29 - April 5, 2008	Succeeded by "You're Gonna Miss This" by Trace Adkins