Regular followers of these Momma 'n' Daddies will have long been wondering why, in a series focused on children and their parents, I have never yet featured a pair of artists from the two generations singing an M&D song. Cease your wondering forthwith. The answer to the question is: I don't know; till now it just never occurred to me. That is proof, if proof were needed, that even the obvious can sometimes elude one. However, this is not a philosophical post, so I'll leave the point there and go ahead with the Judds and 'The Sweetest Gift'. The Judds, for those of you who don't know, are Naomi and Wynonna, mother and daughter. But the song they sing here is about a mother and son, so the whole production is nicely gender-balanced:
One day a mother
Come to a prison
To see an erring
But precious son
She told the warden
How much she loved him
It did not matter
What he had doneChorus
She did not bring to him
Parole or pardon
She brought no silver
No pomp nor style
It was a halo
Sent down from heaven
The sweetest gift
A mother's smileHer boy had wandered
Far from the far side
Though she had pleaded
With him each night
But not a word did
She ever utter
That told her heartaches
Her smile was brightRepeat chorus
She left a smile
You can remember
She's gone to heaven
From heartache's free
Them bars around you
Will never change her
He was her baby
And e'er will be
Repeat chorus
It was a halo
Sent down from heaven
The sweetest gift
A mother's smile
Listen to the song as sung first by the Judds and then by Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt. For some reason, both - I mean all four of them - miss out the middle verse about the boy wandering, but be assured, in the integral song it's there.
[The Momma 'n' Daddy Archive, containing all the details of the series, is here.]