Hear Miranda Lambert’s ‘Sweet by and By’ From ‘Southern Family’

Miranda Lambert shows her sensitive side on "Sweet By and By," her contribution to producer Dave Cobb's forthcoming album Southern Family due for release on March 18.

The three-and-a-half minute song has Lambert advising of important lessons to learn in life while thanking her parents for the things they have taught her. "Family is the light that guides us," she sings.

The ballad finds Lambert singing nostalgically of her childhood alongside sweeping musical accompaniment. "Let your mother know you love her/ You will never have another," she sings.

Lambert is just one of several artists featured on Cobb's Southern Family. Zac Brown, Brandy Clark, John Paul White, the Black Crowes‘ Rich Robinson, Shooter Jennings and Holly Williams also share songs of family.

“Everybody has a great story, about their parents, their grandparents, brother, sister,” Cobb tells Rolling Stone Country. “Everybody has an intimate story and it was something that everybody could relate to. I wanted to have really talented artists custom write and do songs that mean a lot to them, and also just make the song that maybe they wouldn’t put on their record: the deep song, or the song that doesn’t fit in the queue or wouldn’t be a single. I wanted them to do the most honest song they could possibly do.”

He adds, “And people really brought it and poured their hearts out. They were enjoying the fact that they could do a song that wasn’t precious or didn’t have to fit a mold. It was a song they wouldn’t put on their album, and it’s been a lot of fun.”

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