Songfacts®:

• Miranda Lambert kicks off her Postcards From Texas album with a wonderfully bizarre tale that only country music could produce - a chance meeting with a hitchhiking armadillo in Amarillo, Texas. In this whimsical, freewheeling yarn, Lambert recounts how this armadillo hops into the passenger seat of her truck and turns out to be packing heat - he's on the lam from the law. The chorus really sells the absurdity of it all:
  
  And I know it sounds crazy
  But please believe me baby
  I swear that's where I was last night
• The song, titled "Armadillo," is the brainchild of Jon Decious, Parker Twomey, and Aaron Raitiere, a trio clearly having way too much fun with a country tune. Lambert first came across it driving through the mountains of Austria with her husband, Brendan McLoughlin, after a show in Switzerland.
  
  "I put in my earbuds," Lambert recalled to Apple Music, "and Aaron had sent this song, and the first line was 'I met an armadillo out in Amarillo, and he asked me for a ride.' I just thought, 'Okay, yes, 100 percent yes, I'm cutting this.'"
  
  She was so sold on the song that she hadn't even heard the rest of it before deciding it was going on the album.
• "Armadillo," with its playful chicken-pickin' guitar riffs and steady drum beat, squeezes a surprising number of words into its brief two-minute runtime. It's a tongue-twisting, toe-tapping opener that sets the tone for the 13 songs that follow.
  
  Lambert knew right away that it had to be the album's first track. "It's fun and funny and If you're going to have an album full of songs and there's going to be so much emotion, you've got to make sure you have the fun," she said.
• Lambert co-produced the album with longtime collaborator Jon Randall, recording it at Austin's Arlyn Studios - the first time she'd recorded a full album in her home state of Texas since she was 18. The album is drenched in Texas spirit, and what better mascot for a Texas-inspired album than the armadillo, the state's unofficial armored mascot?
• Miranda Lambert has a soft spot for her Texas roots - so much so that she celebrated her 40th birthday at Billy Bob's Texas, the world's largest honky-tonk. The party took place on a Monday when the venue was closed, giving her a quiet, nostalgic celebration. It was this moment of returning home that sparked the inspiration for Postcards From Texas. Lambert realized it was time to go back to where her musical journey began, both personally and professionally, and record in her home state again.
• Now, while you might think an armadillo is just a quirky choice for a song character, there's plenty of history and trivia attached to this leathery little mammal. Armadillos are common across the Americas and are best known for their armor-like shell made of bony plates called scutes, which protect them from predators. As an added bonus, here are a few fun facts to toss around at your next dinner party:
  
  The Glyptodont, a prehistoric relative of the armadillo, was the size of a small car. Imagine trying to give that a ride.
  
  During the Great Depression, armadillos were eaten by folks who called them "Poor Man's Pork" or, in Texas, the "Hoover hog," as a jab at President Herbert Hoover.
  
  The official mascot for the 2014 World Cup was an armadillo named Fuleco.
  
  Armadillos can leap 3 to 4 feet in the air when startled - handy knowledge if you ever encounter one on the side of the road.
  
  Young armadillos are adorably called "armadiglets."
  
  And for those who like their animals sleepy, the large hairy armadillo holds the record as the world's sleepiest, clocking in at an impressive 20 hours of sleep a day. (Source Encyclopedia Of Trivia)
• If Lambert's song leaves you craving more armadillo-themed music (and why wouldn't it?), you can check out "Hey Armadillo," a bonus track on Elton John's The Road to El Dorado soundtrack, inspired by the animated armadillo character in the movie.
  
  Or, if you're feeling adventurous, dive into the prog-rock madness of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's 20-minute epic "Tarkus," which somehow manages to combine an armadillo and a tank into one mythological beast. How's that for a musical deep dive?