Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys

Willy and Waylon – For Old Times Sake

I know that every reader will be familiar with the Willy Nelson and Waylon Jennings 1978 song, “Mama, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys”. Here’s a refresher for old times sake….

I also know that my followers will love the new take on that great song from 1978, by American Country Music artist Alex Key… “Willie, Waylon, and Mama”. It goes like this:

Remembering the Variety Concerts in the Old Town Hall

Hearing these songs takes me back to a time in Taroom before Social Media, Spotify, and the Internet. When I was a young girl growing up in town in the 1970s. If we weren’t somewhere riding a horse on the weekend, we had the pictures on Friday or Saturday night and the occasional VARIETY CONCERT at the old Town Hall for our entertainment.

The Town Concert was a tradition that had been around Taroom from the beginning of time, coming nearer to it’s end in the 1970s.

I remember many locals entertaining the packed hall with their various talents, but this Facebook reel (follow Alex Key) that I stumbled across today took me back to Brendan Williams – husband of Pam, brother of Keith and Malcolm, and father of Kent, Darren (Bobby/Burgh), Jason, and Richard. Brendan was obviously a fan of Willy Nelson, belting out renditions the likes of “Rhinestone Cowboy” and something about “A Hole in the Bucket”, a duet with Mr Henry from Adams store, I think… These family concerts were a lot of fun!

COWBOY JIMMY McGUIRE (1937-1980)

Spare a thought for the Cowboy’s Mama

The song “Willy, Waylon and Mama” by Alex Key has got me thinking, and I’d like to spare a thought for all the poor mama’s over the years who have raised a cowboy. Watching your son climb down into the chutes to strap himself down in a death grip atop a savage, long horned bull or an outlaw bronc must have been hard to bear.

Since the beginning of time, COWBOYS have played a big part in the fabric of Taroom.

The little town of Taroom on the Dawson River is (arguably) the second-oldest town in Queensland behind Ipswich.

Residents of Gayndah may well dispute that claim… but it all comes down to the date from which authorities decide to start counting.
First settlers arrived in 1845 to stake their claim with sheep and cattle, the very next year after explorer Ludwig Leichhardt passed through, carving “LL 1844” on a big Coolibah tree, still standing in the main street today.
In 1856 the first post office was built, and the town’s name was changed from “Bonners Knob” to “Taroom”.

from the 1950s tales I’ve been hearing lately, Taroom Cowboy JIM McGUIRE is a name at the top of the list when speaking of legendary cowboys from the district.

The Smith brothers, Lex and Trevor, were good mates with Jimmy. They all grew up together around Raceview, when Ipswich was just a big country town. Jimmy was a young boy of 9 when his father was killed in a horse accident in 1946. Raised by his widowed Irish mother on a dairy farm (with older brother Mick, and younger sister Bridget), Jimmy rode his first outlaw horse in the Tex Morton Buckjump Show when he was 10 years old.

“Even at that age Jimmy could ride anything.”
(Lex Smith 2024)

Jimmy had plenty of practice on his mum’s milkers, bucking them every chance he got when Mrs McGuire went to town, with a stern warning to “leave my milkers alone McGuire!” as she trundled off in the sulky. 

The Smith boys, brother Mick and other mates would enjoy the rodeo that ensued, the bystanders diligently re-standing all the drums and road signs that made up the milking yard/arena after the bucking cows had inevitably smashed them down. (Jimmy never did like fencing with pliers!) 

Mrs McGuire would return late afternoon, her eagle eyes spotting the differences in the arrangement  of her milker yard “fence” every time. She could be heard hollering in her thick, Irish accent as she came up the road…

“McGuire, you b****ard, you’ve been bucking my milkers again!!!”

proceeding to berate him angrily, turning the air blue (as only an Irish woman could get away with)… but always with a twinkle in her eye.  She was immensely proud of her daredevil boy Jimmy.

Jimmy McGuire moved to Taroom in his mid-teens 1954, starting on Hornet Bank before moving to Glenhaughton to work with the Ipswich lads in 1957. His reputation as “a rough rider who could stay on anything” quickly spread.

The locals relentlessly challenged him with horses that nobody else could ride, and it was no contest. 

Jimmy was once given a whole string of horses from The Bend that had the measure of every other rider who tried them. With special permission from Dick McCullagh and Jim Booth (Manager and Head Stockman of Glenhaughton), Jimmy took the string of bucking horses out on mustering camp, entertaining the ringers with a buckjump show at every opportunity.  The horses soon tired of bucking and losing, so Jimmy would grab a handful of flank, and MAKE them buck, just for the practice.

Jimmy’s goal was always to follow the rodeo circuit fulltime.

By early 1960s he had become prominent at all of Queensland’s major rodeos. He was a versatile and tough competitor, afraid of nothing. Jimmy married Margaret Clarris, (much younger sister of the legendary Taroom horseman Jack Clarris), and together with their 2 children Danny and Sharon, they put Taroom on the map all over Australia. 

At the time of Jimmy’s early passing from cancer on 1 January 1980 (42 years), Jimmy had  won the world title of All Round Champion Cowboy a record number of 5 times (1967, 1969, 1970, 1975, 1976), and too many Australian and Queensland titles to mention.

I’m sure Mrs McGuire is one of many proud mama’s who raised her baby to be a cowboy.  RIP James Randall “JIMMY” McGuire.

Follow Alex Key on Facebook, the artist who inspired this story with his song, “Willy, Waylon and Mama’s”