Jason Aldean to headlines Winstock (Minn.) Country Music Festival

Country star Jason Aldean will get the chance to try that in an actual small town when he and Cole Swindell headline the 30th anniversary Winstock Country Music Festival on June 14 and 15 near Winsted, Minn.

Reserved seats are $245 and general admission tickets are $150, available by phone at 320-485-4287 or online via winstockfestival.com. Camping is $155, while VIP tickets are sold out.

In the years since his 2005 debut single “Hicktown,” Aldean has maintained a steady presence on country radio with a series of chart-toppers that include “She’s Country,” “Big Green Tractor,” “Dirt Road Anthem,” “Burnin’ it Down,” “You Make it Easy,” “Got What I Got” and “If I Didn’t Love You.”

“Try That in a Small Town,” the first single from his impending 11th album “Highway Desperado,” was released in May and didn’t get much traction until the video came out in July. The song’s lyrics contrast rural and urban lifestyles and suggest that crime is rampant in cities and that anyone who would “try that in a small town” will “see how far you make it down the road” with a later line referencing a “gun that my granddad gave me.”

For the video, Aldean’s team filmed his band performing outside a Tennessee courthouse where a lynching took place in 1927 interspersed with news footage of rallies, looting and riots. CMT pulled it from rotation after four days, a move that thrust the song into the national conversation about crime, gun violence and gun ownership. It was later revealed some of the footage in the video was taken at protests in Canada. At the end of the month, an edited version was released that removed a clip of Fox News coverage of a Black Lives Matter protest in Atlanta due to copyright issues.

Aldean — who grew up in Macon, the fourth-largest city in Georgia — has made the song the centerpiece of his summer concerts, including his Aug. 19 performance at Treasure Island Casino Amphitheater. The controversy helped “Try That in a Small Town” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, a first for Aldean, and earn the biggest sales week for a country song in more than a decade.

Cole Swindell

As is common in Nashville, Swindell began his career as a songwriter, penning hits for Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line. He independently released his debut single “Chillin’ It” in 2013, which led to a deal with Warner Bros. Records. He has since hit the Top 10 on country radio 11 times, most recently with “She Had Me at Heads Carolina,” “Never Say Never” and “Single Saturday Night.”

Swindell will headline June 14 with support from Tracy Lawrence and Rocket Club, while Aldean wraps things up June 15 on a bill with Jon Pardi, Russell Dickerson and Sara Evans. Additional acts will be announced at a later date.