For Cross Canadian Ragweed Fans Mad About Their Mile 0 Fest Debut


On Thursday, January 23rd in Key West, Florida, Cross Canadian Ragweed officially reunited on stage and played their first songs for people in 15 years. The performance was completely unannounced. It just happened to be that all the Cross Canadian Ragweed members were on Key West Island at the same time since Cody Canada and The Departed were playing Mile 0 Fest, as was the up-and-coming band The Smokin’ Oaks, which happens to be the band of Grady Cross’s son Slaid Cross.

Mile 0 Fest planned a tribute to Cross Canadian Ragweed to toast their impending reunification as the festival is known to do for legendary Texas/Red Dirt bands and artists. Ragweed first announced the reunification of their most legendary lineup on on September 30th, 2024. Cody Canada (lead guitar/vocals), Randy Ragsdale (drums), and Grady Cross (guitar), and Jeremy Plato (bass) announced a reunion show in Stillwater, Oklahoma at T Boone Pickens Stadium for April 12th, 2025.

Demand for that first show was so insane, it ended up getting expanded to four shows, with folks feverishly buying up tickets to experience what they believed would be the first opportunity to see Cross Canadian Ragweed together since 2010. 183,000 tickets were eventually sold.

Now that the band appeared together at Mile 0 Fest first, some fans feel misled, or otherwise disappointed that they didn’t get the opportunity to see them first. But as someone who personally witnessed the moment at Mile 0 Fest—and has witnessed similar band reunifications on stage before—I can attest that your disappointment should be minimal at most, or non-existent.

Is it understandable if you did everything you could to secure tickets and lodging for the reunification show in Stillwater (especially for the first day) that you feel slightly disappointed? Of course it is. But what happened in Key West didn’t feel like “the moment.” Not to take away anything from it, because it did feel like “a moment” as everyone there will attest. But if anything, it felt a little impromptu, if not anti-climactic. It was the dress rehearsal.

First, Ragweed only played six songs, and having seen the set list, their original intention was to only play four. The way the Key West Police were barking at patrons trying to shuffle everyone out after the last song, they went well over their time.

There was no “big moment” when they all walked out on stage together. Since it came at the end of a tribute concert, there were folks moving on and off the stage. Then all of a sudden you just realized that all Ragweed members were there on stage together before Mile 0 Fest owner Kyle Carter introduced them.

Their first song was “Number,” which maybe is symbolically important as the first song on their album Soul Gravy, but isn’t exactly one of their hits, or one of their most recognizable songs. Again, there is no reason to take anything away from the moment at Mile 0 Fest, but it also felt like a moment that shouldn’t take away from what folks will experience in Stillwater.

When it comes to this situation, there is almost a near perfect comparable involving another legendary Oklahoma band, and one who will be participating in the official Cross Canadian Ragweed “Boys In Oklahoma” reunification shows in Stillwater. We’re of course talking about the Turnpike Troubadours.

Similar to Ragweed, the Turnpike Troubadours reunification was leaked out before the band was supposed to reveal it officially in a Rolling Stone “exclusive.” Everybody knew it was coming. Similarly, Turnpike first announced a show at Red Rocks before adding multiple Red Rocks nights due to unexpected demand. Then the Turnpike Troubadours eventually announced a few warm up shows just to make sure they had their feet beneath them before the big Red Rocks reveal.

Turnpike eventually played shows at Cain’s Ballroom, at Billy Bob’s Texas, and Floore’s Country Store before those Red Rocks shows. Granted, there were never any hard promises that Red Rocks would be the first opportunities to see them. But even with the warm up shows, Red Rocks still felt like their big reunification debut.

When the Turnpike Troubadours played their first official show back at Cain’s Ballroom, they did all walk out on stage at once. They opened with “Every Girl,” which is one of their most iconic songs. Having witnessed it personally, it might be the most singular, most emotional moment I’ve ever experienced in music. Cross Canadian Ragweed didn’t even get together after the Mile 0 Fest set to take a bow at center stage. They just waved individually and walked off.

In truth, if you’re a ticket holder for one of those Stillwater shows, you should be glad Cross Canadian Ragweed got their dress rehearsal in. You want to know they’ve worked out all the hiccups before they step out on stage to a packed stadium to play their first full, two-hour set since 2010, and the butterflies start flying around in their stomachs. Let’s not forget it didn’t end well for this band. You want to make sure this plane can fly.

Sure, it’s easy for someone who saw Cross Canadian Ragweed in Key West to say this. But many of those fans tried to get tickets to Stillwater, and didn’t. If you’re one of those Stillwater ticket holders, you’re still sitting in the cat bird’s seat.

Cody Canada addressed some of the naysayers in a video, saying in part,

Last night, we played six songs. Six songs. We had four songs on the setlist. We weren’t going to play at all, but everyone got up and played our songs last night. Guys, Adam Hood did ‘Anywhere But Here.’

How can I not? How can I sit on the side of the stage and hear Adam Hood doing that song, Jason Eady doing ‘Jenny,’ Courtney doing ‘Alabama.’ Oh, hang on, Jamie Lin Wilson taking time out of her vacation year to come here for eighteen hours to sing ’17’ in front of people. 

That’s a love fest. And I’m in love with my friends very much. I was going to get on here and be very mad about things; people are saying there could be lawsuits, people are saying blah blah blah, this is bullsh*t. But guess what? It’s not bullsh*t.

We sold 183,000 tickets for 183,000 people that want to see us play music. Last night, we stood on the side of the stage as our friends played our songs, and it got to us to the point where we said, ‘You know what? F**k this. We want to get up and give people what they want to hear. We want to play songs for people.’ And we did six songs. It’s not like we did a two-hour show.



Again, is being slightly disappointed understandable? Sure. But so is understanding how the moment unfolded in Key West. And don’t worry, if you’re one of the 183,000 souls with tickets to Stillwater in April (considering some might have multiple day tickets), you’re going to get the full, unfiltered, un-truncated Cross Canadian Ragweed experience yourselves. And there will probably be some more shows afterwards for folks who can’t be in Stillwater either.

These are the moments true music fans live for. And there are plenty of them to go around.



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