The Carroll County Accident

"The Carroll County Accident" is a 1968 country song written by Bob Ferguson, and recorded by Porter Wagoner. It was a hit for Wagoner and became one of his signature songs. The Carroll County Accident won CMA's Song of the Year in 1969.^[3]

Content

In the song, the singer tells the story of a single-car accident that occurs just inside the county line near his hometown. The passenger, Walter Browning, an upstanding member of the community and seemingly happily married man, dies; while the driver, Mary Ellen Jones, a woman not his wife but also well respected, survives to testify that she was taking him to town on an errand of mercy.

The singer describes his examining the wreckage and finding evidence of an extramarital affair between the two. He promptly disposes of the evidence and swears himself to silence. He does this in order to preserve their reputations in the county because, as he reveals in the last verse, Walter Browning had been his father.

The song reached number 2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs and number 92 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[1]

Covers

Wagoner's frequent musical collaborator Dolly Parton covered "The Carroll Country Accident" in 1969, including it on her In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad) album.

Chart performance

References