On This Cross Canadian Ragweed Tease
This story has been updated.
Do I know something that you don’t? Do you know something that I don’t? The truth is, even if I did know something, I wouldn’t tell you. Because I would never want to ruin a surprise, and creating buzz and conversation is what this is all about.
I get it. You saw Cross Canadian Ragweed’s cryptic post on their website and social media that appears to be their logo wrapped in red cloth, or something. On the website it also says “2025.” It’s the first sign of life we’ve seen from the band after officially disbanding in 2010. And now you feel like you have ants in your pants at the possibility of a Cross Canadian Ragweed reunification, a tour, or release a new album, or something, or anything.
But we don’t really know what’s happening, or what the future might hold. That’s part of the fun. It could be something as simple as an album reissue with remastered takes and perhaps some bonus tracks. It could be a full reunification of the most legendary lineup of Cody Canada (lead guitar/vocals), Randy Ragsdale (drums), and Grady Cross (guitar), and Jeremy Plato (bass). But it’s also probably prudent for fans to stay calm, and keep their expectations realistic.
Cody Canada who currently fronts the band Cody Canada and the Departed. Canada has also been unequivocal in saying that Cross Canadian Ragweed will never get back together.
“I was really pissed off. It was coming, we saw it coming,” Canada said in a 2020 interview. “If you watch any band that breaks up you can see the date that they split and go backwards and see it coming… When it did go down it went down in a heated argument. There was a lot of anger, and then the next day I was kinda scared… Sixteen years is a good run… getting back together will never happen.”
Canada has doubled down on these proclamations since. You never know though. Some gave the Turnpike Troubadours a 0% chance of a return. The Eagles had to name their 1994 album and reunion tour “Hell Freezes Over” after a Don Henley quote about the band never getting back together.
The reason folks are so excited about the prospects of something happening with Cross Canadian Ragweed is because the band was so seminal to the Red Dirt movement and the intersection of country rock after being founded in 1994. At this point, it’s just as much about nostalgia as it is current cultural relevance. But for sure, the band has plenty of ongoing fans, and defined the intersectionality for country and rock in the Texas/Red Dirt scene.
But as for what comes next with the band, we’ll find out when they’re ready for us to. Revel in these moments. These kinds of surprises are what music is all about. Keep your expectations measured, but also don’t spoil the fun, for you or anyone else. A sloppy rollout and leaky ship in part made the Turnpike Troubadours stuff less than ideal.
So sit tight, and be patient. Soon it will all be revealed.
September 18, 2024 @ 10:53 am
The inly semi-realistic prediction I can come up with is that 2025 is the 20 year anniversary of “Garage.”
September 18, 2024 @ 11:17 am
If they got back together, that would be something. They were so instrumental in getting me into good music. I can play Cody and CCR all day long! I would travel to see one of their shows. Please let this be real.
September 18, 2024 @ 11:24 am
Considering Cody’s prior comments, I’d be more incline to think that maybe Cody and Plato have negotiated a way to reclaim ownership of the music and merch.
September 18, 2024 @ 11:27 am
Never Say Never Again
September 18, 2024 @ 11:29 am
Oh, How edgy.
Bfd.
: D They are certainly not in the same league as the Eagles.
September 18, 2024 @ 4:31 pm
Nobody said they were. If you don’t like them that’s fine, but your faux-edgy contrariness got old a long-ass time ago.
September 19, 2024 @ 8:00 am
They don’t have one song that is equal in popularity or writing.
September 20, 2024 @ 10:12 am
You’re right, they’re better
September 23, 2024 @ 9:48 pm
And they sure as hell ain’t Creedence Clearwater Revival. Cody Canada is no John Fogerty.
September 24, 2024 @ 9:07 am
Yes, the whole CCR abbrev. for Cross Canadian, is smile inducing.
September 24, 2024 @ 12:01 pm
You do realize where there name came from don’t you?? Why did you even waste your time reading this article if you only have crappy thoughts of them?
September 18, 2024 @ 11:45 am
Its only been a couple years since Cody was even allowed to perform any CCR songs……which he learned years later. He had to re-record which is what he did with Soul Gravy a couple years ago. The times I’ve seen CC & The Departed, he had rushed through a version of Alabama or 17 to placate fans before going through an almost exclusive Departed set. However since the re-record of Soul Gravy, he’s done more CCR heavy sets and even said he’s in a more peaceful place regarding that catalog of music. Time heals all wounds but a full reunion would be an absolute shock. There’s likely monetary incentive but I can’t imagine that being a motivator. Maybe he’s just rerecording the old albums and Garage is next Daydreamer says.
September 18, 2024 @ 11:49 am
I hope & pray. I miss them. The Departed isn’t the same.
September 18, 2024 @ 12:30 pm
Ragweed was my intro the the Texas music scene. They reshaped the standard I held music to. They were to me what George Strait was to Cody Canada. I’d love to see a reunion. It should also be noted that Plato was the bassist pretty much throughout the meaningful entirety of the band. They never recorded an album without him.
Regardless, a Cross Canadian Ragweed reunion tour and album is exactly the thing that this country needs
September 18, 2024 @ 3:03 pm
Apparently, Choya Partridge who is mentioned on the band’s Wikipedia page and about 50+ other outlets either doesn’t exist, or Canada’s wife doesn’t know about him. I’m getting my balls busted on Facebook for apparently not knowing this is false information, but nobody seems to want to put out any effort out to correct it except in a Saving Country Music Facebook comments section, and acting like I’m somehow I’m the idiot.
September 18, 2024 @ 4:34 pm
Trig, not sure exactly what you’re getting bombarded with as I’m not on FB but figuring you might have a direct line of contact with Josh Crutchmer and guessing he could shed some light? Reading his book it seems like Josh was a first hand witness from the very early days or at least talked to a lot of folks that were.
September 18, 2024 @ 4:42 pm
I’m corresponding with Cody’s wife Shannon. It appears someone maliciously edited the online info.
September 18, 2024 @ 8:05 pm
Dude probably added his own name to the Wikipedia page 🤣
September 18, 2024 @ 1:32 pm
Garage and Live at Billy Bobs are still in constant rotation in my music. Timeless albums for me. I hope they play some shows, bucket list for me.
September 18, 2024 @ 1:46 pm
Guns N’ Roses named their reunion tour “Not In This Lifetime” because Axl said he’d never play with the OG Guns ever again. Glenn Danzig always stood firm saying he would NEVER play with Jerry Only again under the Misfits moniker. This stuff happens. Grudges fade away (or are erased by dollar signs) and bands get back together.
September 18, 2024 @ 4:41 pm
Based on the two artists you mentioned above (Particularly the second), I would absolutely love to see your top five best country albums of all time. Very interesting.
September 18, 2024 @ 8:18 pm
All Time is tough. So is picking only 5. If I was forced at gunpoint to pick 5 all time albums (in no particular order) I guess I’d pick stuff I grew up listening to like a Hank Sr compilation, Night Life by Ray Price, Guitars Cadillacs Etc Etc by Dwight, In Person by Charley Pride, and The First Ten Years by David Allan Coe.
If I were to pick the top five I’m diggin’ currently it would be Die Midwestern by Arlo McKinley, Countin’ The Miles by Jesse Daniel, $10 Cowboy by Charley Crockett, Survived by Lost Dog Street Band, and Dead Man by Channing Wilson.
September 18, 2024 @ 4:07 pm
Trigger and fellow commentators, get in my time machine, and let’s go back to soldier field’s parkland for two days in October 2008, and see for free, CROSS CANADIAN RAGWEED, Justin Townes Earle, Eli Young Band, Tift Merritt, Rissi Palmer, Son Volt, Lady Antebellum before the name change, Luke Bryan being less of a doofus than usual, and the 19 yr old T. Swift, who was about to release Fearless!
September 18, 2024 @ 4:08 pm
Damn!
September 19, 2024 @ 8:04 am
It is interesting to read the archives and realize that the big names of 2008-2010: Jamey Johnson, Hank III, and JTE either died or essentially stopped releasing music.
September 19, 2024 @ 12:47 pm
Just wait until I take the time machine back to Ames, Iowa in 1993, CountryKnight.
September 18, 2024 @ 4:16 pm
Loved em before they blew up. I liked the sound when they were rocking balls in the original Wormy Dog but not so much in large venues later. Maybe I was too drunk to listen properly. Live and Loud will always take me back to freshman year and a fake ID.
September 20, 2024 @ 10:46 am
Remember seeing Jason Boland along with Pat Green at the Wormy Dog in Stillwater. Great memories!!
September 18, 2024 @ 4:29 pm
I don’t think it’s a reunion, but if it was I’d absolutely be there for it. Cody Canada can tell as many people as he wants to that the Departed is better, but if it really was, he wouldn’t be having to say that out loud. I always thought it quite telling that all the songs on the Musicfest tribute were Cross Canadian Ragweed songs. I made that observation elsewhere and somebody came back with, ”well, it was a Cody Canada tribute and the songs were all written by Cody Canada.” I thought, Way to miss my point there, guy.
September 18, 2024 @ 4:43 pm
Saw Courtney Patton solo a couple years ago with maybe 25 people in the room. She assumed everyone there was a fan so she said no set list, tell me what you want me to play. I requested “Alabama” since she covered it on that album and she was thrilled because she hadn’t played it in years. She told a great story about how when she was younger and a CCR superfan, Cody asked her to sing 3 or 4 songs at one of their shows because he’d blown out his voice. “Alabama” being one which is why she did that one at the tribute.
September 18, 2024 @ 8:58 pm
Courtney’s version of “Alabama” is one of the greatest things my ears have ever experienced.
September 19, 2024 @ 4:02 pm
That’s a cool story. I do like her version of that song.
I sure do wish Jason Boland had been the one to record ”17” though. After all, he was the one who came up with the inspiration for it.
September 18, 2024 @ 7:08 pm
Hey Trig, you should totally review Colby Acuff’s latest album that came out a few weeks ago “American Son”. He tries out a lot of new things for his sound, but I had a lot of fun with it. High Noon, Nightmare, and Ain’t So Bad are highlights for me, as well as Man in the Paper Mask and Plastic Horses. Overall, not a bad album at all, I really enjoyed it.
September 18, 2024 @ 7:18 pm
Cody has publicly stated as recently as this past February, that they are never getting back together. Yes, they are creating a buzz with their cryptic post, but I think many people are setting themselves up for a huge letdown.
September 18, 2024 @ 8:21 pm
Perhaps, but glass half full, if that’s the case we can look back one day and think “remember those handful of days where we thought Ragweed was getting back together? Man, those were some good times!”
September 19, 2024 @ 12:56 pm
And just last fall the Gallagher brothers said Oasis would never get back together. So many bands touring now once said they would never get back together, yet here they are. People change and/or money talks. It could be nothing, or it could be a reunion. Either way, people are talking about CCR again.
September 18, 2024 @ 8:22 pm
If Oasis of all acts can re-band and (allegedly) record a brand new album together, ANYTHING’s possible as far as I’m concerned, hahahahaha!
September 19, 2024 @ 5:51 am
The more I’m thinking about this, the more I’m getting my hopes up probably more than I should. Considering Cody’s comments about it never happening, as recent as this past February, this seems like an awfully big tease for something small or less than significant. I don’t feel like this much mystery would shroud an anniversary edition of an album or a re-recording of a prior album. This really feels big and like something is actually happening.
Again, I know what Cody has said and that he’s been vehement about it, but fences do get mended and wounds do heal. Perhaps they’ve found a way to make it work, maybe even merge the two bands.
I just don’t feel like a tease this big would be put into something that isn’t big.
September 19, 2024 @ 6:11 am
Somebody mentioned getting the rights to his music. Currently he doesn’t own them, I don’t think anyways. If there was a way to negotiate that deal Cody might make that work. I mean, I don’t know….
We (my wife and I) have seen Cody as the Departed a shitload of times, and probably since 2019-2020 it’s been mostly a Ragweed set. Even heard Carney Man last time we saw him. Seems happy and content. At that time stated he liked playing smaller venues.
Whether it’s a reunion, a record, getting rights to the music he wrote, a re-release, a book, whatever, I just hope he, his family, and the band are ready for the wild ride. Cody is a good dude, been very kind to my wife and I several times.
That band just meant so much to so many. It’s part of their story, growing up, meeting spouses. Memories attached to melodies. It’s personal. Probably always will be. Ragweed just hit different.
September 19, 2024 @ 6:31 am
Like a few others have said here, Ragweed was one of the bands that drew me back to country music. I hoped for a return for many years after the breakup, and The Departed never really captured the same greatness for me. So I would probably be pretty pumped for the guys to get back together. However after 14 years you have to wonder if they could rekindle that same fire. Hope we get to find out.
September 19, 2024 @ 2:04 pm
Not saying it’s happening now, but if Mike McClure and TGD reconciled, I assume that day will come for Cody too.
September 19, 2024 @ 3:11 pm
The thing about ragweed is Cody and Jeremy were the two most influential members. Cody wrote all those songs, sang them and played lead guitar, the sound of the band was whatever Cody wanted it to be. Even if Ragweed had never broken up, I guarantee you the songs he is writing for the departed would be the exact songs he would be writing for ragweed. Now if people want the band to get back together so they can go and hear all the old songs that is fine, but Cody is not gonna change his writing style all of a sudden, because ragweed is back together.
September 20, 2024 @ 4:50 am
They’ve now also updated their cover photo on their Facebook page. This is looking like something real is happening.
September 20, 2024 @ 11:11 am
Echo the sentiment “Ragweed” pulled me more into country-rock music. Was a big Son Volt, UT, and DBTs fan at the time they were going. But I never got the see CCR. So instead of pining for the original guys to come back together I’ll keep reading SCM and find the next CCR to replace them. I’ll quote Josh Homme (guitarist) when asked about a Kyuss (crazy good stoner rock band) reunion, “and KYUSS was a really magical thing – and if you weren’t there, well, you weren’t. That’s just the luck of the draw.”
September 21, 2024 @ 4:04 pm
Cody, Jeremy, and Randy maybe. Grady? I have my doubts. For being the guy who’s place in the band was basically “hold guitar while wearing backwards hat” it was pretty hilarious that him wanting a bigger share was what broke them up.
September 26, 2024 @ 2:23 pm
This is my take too. Randy was fun but Waldo is not a worse drummer. Ragweed was Canada, Plato, and Ragsdale and a dude who was in the right place at the right time. I also thought the best job in music would be Grady’s guitar tech.
September 22, 2024 @ 9:48 am
Let’s think about this from an economic stand point. Do not mistake my following points as greed either, just reality. The infrastructure around the Departed cost a lot more now to up keep than before. Inflation and interest rates are way up, but a ticket to a departures show is around $25 bucks. That’s about the same price it’s been since they started the band. 500 seaters bring in $12000 plus a fraction in merchandise. Split that between the band, crew and expenses it’s not a lot. Those road expenses are now way higher than before so the band share is less. Now, that take home does not go as far in the cost of living either. They still need retirement and health insurance and they have kids. There is not a whole lot left. Now let’s flip on the Ragweed switch. Venues could go from 500 to 2000 seat venues and a ticket could go from $25 to $40. All of a sudden a $12,000 night goes to $80,000 with very similar expenses.
Cody Canada is a good dude and his family means everything to him, and he’s the type that would do things he doesn’t want to do for the people he loves and at the same time not do it half ass. The Ragweed Reunion only has a certain window before the maximum value goes down as well. The band’s age and the audience’s age is a factor. I wouldn’t think twice about dropping $50 per ticket, I may even take my kids to see the band that rocked my college years and now plays on Saturday morning’s in the kitchen while making pancakes.
Also the line “we are never getting back together” has purpose as well, it makes moments like these more valuable.
Another aspect to consider is Waves, if they are on the bill their exposure goes up 3x. That alone can offset if they were being subsidized by the Departed.
At the end of the day you make the right decision for your family. If Ragweed goes on a two year reunion run they can set their families up for the future and also have a proper good bye and thank you their fans. Good people usually make the right decision and when they make a decision that put their heart into it.
September 22, 2024 @ 2:27 pm
They’re new to me and it’s just great music. Through two albums and several to go.
September 25, 2024 @ 10:02 am
It is gonna be Cody, Plato, Dierks, and Willy. We all know Cody is working towards his own Partridge Family phase.