Bitterweeds

The song tells the story of a solitary woman who lives in a cabin on a hill. Wildflowers grow outside her back door, and young men pick them to give to other women. From a dusty window she watches through the night for the man she favoured, who never comes to call. Her neighbours think she is crazy, and gossip says she was widowed or lost a love long ago, but she never answers them. In the final verse the church bells ring and six men carry her down the hill. She takes her secrets with her, and the bitterweeds of the chorus are the only things her garden ever grew.

Larry Sparks recorded the song in December 2013 at Hilltop Recording Studios in Nashville, singing lead with Jackie Kincaid on tenor, Ron Stewart on fiddle, David Harvey on mandolin, Tyler Mullins on banjo and Larry D. Sparks on bass. Rebel Records released it as a single on 24 June 2014, the first from his 50th-anniversary album Lonesome and Then Some: A Classic 50th Celebration (Rebel REB-CD 1846), which followed on 5 August. Sparks said he loved the song from the start and called it “a picture painted in words.” His recording held the No. 1 spot on Bluegrass Today’s weekly airplay chart in August 2014 and placed second on the magazine’s year-end list of radio spins for 2014.

The German band Bunch of Grass later opened their 2022 album Bunch of Grass with the song.