Cross Canadian Ragweed

Cross Canadian Ragweed was a pioneering force in the Red Dirt and Texas country music scenes, blending rock, country, and Southern influences into a unique sound that resonated with fans across the country. Formed in 1994 in Yukon, Oklahoma, the band consisted of Cody Canada (lead vocals and guitar), Grady Cross (guitar), Randy Ragsdale (drums), and Jeremy Plato (bass).

The band quickly gained a reputation for high-energy live performances and heartfelt songwriting, developing a dedicated grassroots following. Unlike many country bands of their era, Cross Canadian Ragweed leaned heavily into rock influences, drawing comparisons to artists like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Steve Earle. Their music reflected themes of small-town life, heartache, and rebellion, striking a chord with fans who appreciated their raw, unfiltered storytelling.

Cross Canadian Ragweed released several studio and live albums, with notable successes like Carney (1998), Highway 377 (2001), and Soul Gravy (2004), which featured hits like “Sick and Tired” and “Alabama.” Their breakthrough album, Cross Canadian Ragweed (also known as the “Purple Album”), further cemented their status as Red Dirt icons. Over the years, they collaborated with prominent artists in the genre and helped bring Red Dirt music into the national spotlight.

After years of touring and success, the band announced their hiatus in 2010, citing family commitments and burnout. Though they disbanded, their impact on Red Dirt and Texas country remained strong, influencing a new generation of musicians. Front man Cody Canada continued his musical journey with his band, The Departed, keeping the spirit of Cross Canadian Ragweed alive.
“We haven’t played together for 15 years. Okay, we’ve almost been apart as long as we were together the first time around,” remarked front man Cody Canada, when I caught up with him not long ago, after the announcement they would reunite for a series of reunion shows in Okalhoma.

Humble Beginnings
The guys were just a group of friends in a small town looking for something to do together. “I was 16 and searching,” Cody told me. “I really loved music, and I didn’t really have a lot of people around me that could play music. Someone said this guy, Jeremy, (our bass player) was playing music; doing metal music, and stuff like that. I was really looking for a country thing, but really, I was just doing the solo thing, and looking for a band; just people to with a common interest to play around with.”

“I got to play this thing with Toby Keith,” he recalled. “I was in the Oklahoma FFA, and I got to play this party he was hosting.” For a young kid with a guitar, it was, a really good opportunity. “In the crowd there was a young drummer,” Cody said. “After the show he came up and invited me over to his house. His dad had bought him a drum kit. And that’s really where Ragweed started.”

“We figured out we really had something going. So we just started recruiting our other friends that we knew messed around with music, which was Jeremy and Grady, and man, it was an almost instant thing. We just started playing, and practicing as much as we could until we got a gig about 12 months later.”

“I was still doing acoustic stuff, making $100 a night working in a bar, and having a good time at a young age. I didn’t really have anywhere to live, so I was couch surfing, but it was paying for my habit of music; and on the weekends, we would do the ragweed thing.”

“I think the acoustic stuff really helped the band, because it got the songs out there, and it got my style out there. Before long, I was so busy I didn’t get to do those acoustic shows anymore. And then we started hitting the road.”

Then It Happened
They needed a name for their new found venture.”It was Randy Ragsdale, the drummer; everybody in high school called him Randy ragweed, just kind of joking around. We were sitting around and talking about what we should call the band, and I said, ‘Ragweed.’ Like, you know, he started the band, and then his dad said, ‘How about Canadian (Cody Canada) Ragweed?’ And then somebody yelled across the room, ‘how about everybody’s last names?’ (as in, Grady Cross); Cross Canadian Ragweed. Of course Jeremy Plato (bass), his name’s not in there, but he’s just as big of part of the band, because when he showed up is when we really knew that we had a band. He’s always been the best player out of all of us. And he didn’t care what we called it. So we just went with it,” Cody said.

The band was a pretty big hit early on. “It was our drive, in the beginning,” Cody remembered. “We were so determined. We all had an interest in the same music. It was a kind of a Texas blues, old country, folk country kind of thing. They call it Americana now, right? But back then, that wasn’t a very common word. From the moment we sat down at that first practice, we knew we had something. We just had to mold it. We had the opportunity to open for Willie Nelson, and it was the very first time that we actually had a set list that was made up of all our songs. I remember thinking, ‘there’s not one cover. We’re playing a 45 minute set, and there’s not one cover.’ That was really the moment we thought we might be onto something.”

The Songs Mattered
“Early on I just I wrote what I was listening to; trying to write like Garth Brooks, and Clint Black, and stuff like that. Because that’s what was on the radio, that’s what I was listening to. However when I went to this place in Stillwater, around age16 or 17, I learned that you can really write about your feelings, and you can write about things that bother you, and things that you love. I learned that from a guy named Mike McClure, who has been my mentor since day one. We’ve known each other for 31 years now, and he still inspires me. He’s the one that showed me that you can do this yourself. You can write your own songs. You can write about your feelings and everything that’s ailing you, and everything that you’re in love with, and nobody can say anything about it. That was the freedom of it. These are my songs, and I can do this and that.”

Then It Ended
“Yes. You know, I was pretty bitter,” Cody said. “I’ve been very transparent with all this stuff elsewhere. But I blame a lot of the split on overworking. There was one year that we were well over 250 shows, then, three out of four of us had brand new babies, and then our second round of brand new babies. Our older kids were just a couple years old. We worked really, really hard, and I didn’t really know how to say no. I didn’t know how to turn it off. The way things were, the label was pushing us, and the booking agency was pushing us. And you feel like if we quit for even a minute, then … you know, that rolling stone gathers no moss. So, we just kept going, and kept going, to the point where we just popped, and it just didn’t go well. The end just didn’t go well.”

Moving On
So Cody carried the tunes over to a solo act, and wrote new songs; that he says he’s also really proud of. “This is the 15th year with my new band. I’ve been with my new band as long as I was with my old band,” he said. “But there was something unfinished.”

A few years ago in Colorado, there was a tribute to Cody’s songs, and all of his artist friends got up and sang these songs back to him. “I didn’t really want it to happen,” he said, “but my wife (we’ve been married for 26 years) has really been my number one person behind me, pushing what I want to do. She said, ‘you know, you need to do a tribute record.’ It really got my mind rolling, but that’s been five years ago now.”

A Glimmer
A couple years ago Cody was attending a concert in New York when something surfaced. “I thought, ‘man, if we did one reunion, we could fill up Madison Square Garden! I could brag to my kids.’ So that’s really when it got rolling. We let it sit for a little bit to make sure we did it correctly. My booking agent, John; he’s the one that got it going. He was the one that was talking to everybody and saying, ‘hey, what do you think?’ And so everybody got on the phone and said, ‘if we do this, right, we can. We don’t have to do it a lot, but let’s do it, and let’s do it big, and let’s have fun. So the main thing is, let’s not only be a band, but let’s be friends; like when we were high school buddies. So it really didn’t take any time at all. It felt like old times. We hadn’t played those songs together for 15 years, but you wouldn’t know it. I mean, I’m bragging. I’m really, really bragging, you know. There’s a couple of tunes that I haven’t played in 15 years. We just dove right back in. I had to read the lyrics, but we hopped right back into it. And, it just it felt … it feels good,” he exclaimed.

The Reality
“It felt like, well maybe we did have something that was really awesome, because we got back on the bike like it was nothing, and apparently everybody else thought so too. When we announced the shows, I thought it’s Oklahoma, maybe we’ll sell 20,000 tickets. I think I’ve just been too close to it. I didn’t realize what was going on. Once we sold the first night out, I was really in shock. But I came home and my wife and booking agent were on a phone call together, and they said, ‘Okay, so we agree, we’re doing night two.’ It’s like, what? And then there was night three. And it wasn’t even like, let’s see what happens. It was instantly they said we’re doing night four. So it went from learning 20 songs to learning over 50.”

And now there are talks about what comes next.

I mean, are you thinking that there might be more than just four shows?

Cody took a long pause and said, “Let me get through these shows first.”

181,000 people bought tickets for the (first) four shows in April, 2025.

As of this publication, a fifth date has been added for August 23rd in Waco, TX.

Full interview with Cody here!