Great show again at the Otherlands last Saturday! 'Carryin' the News to Mary' is one of my favorite Webb Wilder tunes and the lyrics have always intrigued me. Can anyone provide some background on the song? Is there a movie, novel or short story behind this excellent song?

Well, thanks on both counts. I can't give you a complete answer as to anything but, how I came to write those lyrics. In the '90s, I was very interested in the history of cowboying, the West, horses, etc. I'm not sure where but, I read somewhere that "carryin' the news to Mary" had at one time been an expression (somewhere) to describe a saddled riderless, running horse. That was my inspiration. I decided to incorporate a lot of the terms I had recently learned from the world of cowboys and horsemanship. For instance, "center fire rig" is a term used to describe a single cinch saddle of a type that was indigenous to California and their tradition of cowboying which evolved from the original Vaqueros who develpoed their own ways of doing things back during the Spanish Mission years. "Mecate" or "mecate reins" sometimes prounounced "McCarty" by cowboys describes braided horsehair or rope reins that are in fact one continuous rein with the extra length used for a lead line as opposed to the old "split" traditional leather reins. I made up a story about a kid who is killed in a stampede. Later, I realized that this story had already been told in song in the cowboy classic,"Little Joe the Wrangler" sans these expressions. WW

Fine song Webb, one of my favorites.

Thanks for the info Webb. When I was a little kid, my dad had the Marty Robbins' album, "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs," and I listened to that album over and over and over. I was absolutely mesmerized by the song "Utah Carol", and the first time I heard "Carryin' the News to Mary," I was similarly hooked.