The superstar is on tour supporting his Highway Desperado album

Jason Aldean brought a muscle-country party to Jiffy Lube Live on Friday (Aug 31st) during his Highway Desperado Tour. From the moment the downbeat dropped on “ Burnin’ It Down,” Aldean and his stellar band didn’t let up for 22 songs.

Wearing a Charlie Daniels Band shirt and his trademark sepia-tan cowboy hat, Aldean’s rich twang rang through the amphitheater from the rafters to the lawn. Where others might layer fiddle and mandolin to compliment their southern sound, Aldean weaves a complex web of guitar, bass, and steel that gives his music the kind of “oomph” that has fueled his high-octane career. With instrumentation firmly supplanted between tradition and bro-country, Aldean’s catalog is instantly—and distinctively—recognizable.

That hard-as-nails guitar was prominent on “Girl Like You” and the chest-thumping “We Back.” Aldean broke out the Z-top guitar for a new number from his Highway Desperado album called “Whiskey Drink.”

An early song that especially resonated with the Northern Virginia crowd was “Flyover States,” a tome about life in rural America. It speaks to what appeals to an artist in each market. In Bristow, the song received a roar of recognition, while the city crowd at NYC’s Madison Square Garden didn’t latch onto it as quite so anthemic.

A Jason Aldean show is not abrasively political, despite some recent social media fever around Jason and his influencer wife, Britney Aldean. But a T-shirt tossed on stage printed with “TRUMP/ALDEAN ‘24” received a cheer equal to the opening notes of “Dirt Road Anthem.”

Addressing the controversy around his zeitgeist-capturing No. 1 hit, “Try That in the Small Town,” Aldean said, “It’s a crazy day in the country when I’m the asshole for putting out a song that calls out people for disrespect. What they didn’t know is I didn’t care.” And neither did Aldean’s fans, who sent the song to the top of the charts.

Contrary to the backlash, the songwriters recently told media and others gathered to celebrate “Try That in a Small Town” ascending the charts that the song came from a place “of love.” The song, they said, was about the sense of kinship that small-town dwellers feel for each other. They wanted the song to be about sticking together in the face of adversity, not a declaration of division.

Aldean followed “Small Town” with a hard-rock interpretation of “Crazy Town,” and a slow-burning “Trouble With The Heartbreak.”

By the end of the night, Aldean had showcased why he’s a mainstay: not only does he speak to American life, he does so with a passion that millions have, but few know how to express. Whether from a Hicktown in a Flyover State driving a Big Green Tractor, or someone in a metropolis that loves Burnin’ it Down, Aldean gets—and sings—for you.