When I write Westerns, I like to play certain songs, partly because I love them, being a country girl at heart, raised around horses and rodeos, and partly because they inspire me in crazy, wonderful ways.
Three of these very special songs are “Pancho and Lefty”, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard—I especially love the part that goes, “all the Federales say, they could have had them any day” (NOT), and I can’t keep myself from singing along!
The second favorite is “The Cowboy in the Continental Suit”, sung by Marty Robbins. It, too, is a sing-along song, and it tells a wonderful story about how the way people look isn’t necessary the way they are.
A certain rodeo scene in “Secondhand Bride,” one of the original McKettrick books, must might have been inspired by this song. J
Lastly, I thrill to another Marty Robbins song, “The Master’s Call.”
This is about a cattle stampede, and an outlaw/cowboy who hears directly (and very dramatically) from a Guy I happen to love more than life.
His name is Jesus.
