Cross Canadian Ragweed

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Cross Canadian Ragweed's Bio: The members of Cross Canadian Ragweed -- Grady Cross, Cody Canada, Randy Ragsdale and Jeremy Plato -- have known each other pretty much since kindergarten in the band's hometown of Yukon, Okla. They all wanted to get out, and music seemed like a good escape. W hen they all had graduated (except for Ragsdale, the youngest member), they started jamming at a party, and Cross Canadian Ragweed was born. Yukon as a rule wasn't a very musician-friendly town, but they had one notable local squarely in their corner: Ragsdale 's father Johnny.

"My dad was a guitar player. He played with Bob Wills and a little bit with Reba McEntire when she was first starting out," says Ragsdale. "He really didn't want me to be a drummer but I insisted. I found a set of drums in a n eighbor's trash one day and hauled them into the cellar. He kind of figured out after about a year that I was serious and finally got me a new drum set. And when he met Cody, he realized his talent and how seriously we wanted to take music, and he really pushe d us. He completely drove us up the wall, but later down the road, we realized he did it for a good reason."

Once the band got its chops they moved to Stillwater, Okla., where acts like Mike McClure's Great Divide and singer-songwriter Jimmy LaFave had e stablished enough of a local scene to earn Stillwater the nickname "North Austin" (or, depending on your perspective, "West Nashville"). Inspired by McClure's self-penned Great Divide songs (and more than a little by early Steve Earle), the band quickly grew out of its Merle Haggard and classic rock covers and began focusing on Canada's uncommonly honest and straight-forward originals. A potent foursome of albums -- 1998's Carney, 1999's Live at the Wormy Dog, 2001's Highway 377 and 2002's Live at Billy Bob's Texas -- collectively sold more 70,000 copies to date. Combined with the band's average of 200 gigs a year, Cross Canadian Ragweed cinched a place at the top of the Texas-Oklahoma music totem pole.

"We're a little more rock 'n' roll than o ther people [from the Oklahoma/Texas scene], and that's not a bad thing," laughs Canada, whose Southern-fried lead guitar licks betray his love of heroes like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pete Anderson (of Dwight Yoakam fame) and Eddie Van Halen -- not to mention the fact that he's been playing since he was 8 years old.

After building a huge concert following in Texas and Oklahoma, the band decided to look into signing a record deal. In 2003, fledgling label Universal South released a self-titled album (produced by Mc Clure) that the band recorded prior to signing their record deal. They released Soul Gravy in 2004, Garage in 2005 and Back to Tulsa: Live and Loud at Cain's Ballroom in 2006. … Read more