Following in the (alternative) footsteps of Garth Brooks

Wednesday, May 9, 2007 | 7:21 a.m.

Who: Cross Canadian Ragweed

When: 8 p.m. Thursday

Where: House of Blues

Tickets: $16 in advance, $18 at the door; 632-7600

They're a band of brothers, sort of.

The members of Cross Canadian Ragweed, who perform at the House of Blues on Thursday, have known one another since they were toddlers in Oklahoma. They've worked together so closely that they've become family.

"All of us are from Oklahoma," Cody Canada, the band's lead vocalist, lead guitarist and harmonica player, said by phone from his Texas home. "But we were born in different spots. Everyone moved to the Yukon area at age 2 or 3."

Yukon, Okla., is the hometown of country superstar Garth Brooks, who attended Oklahoma State University in Stillwater and now lives near Tulsa.

In the early 1990s, Stillwater was a hotbed of music - sort of a mini-Austin, Texas - and Eskimo Joe's became internationally famous as a cool place to hang out.

Canada, drummer Randy Ragsdale, rhythm guitarist Grady Cross and original bassist Matt Wiedemann (who has been replaced by Jeremy Plato) created their group in 1994. The name is composed of bits and pieces of the names of the founders.

It's hard to pigeonhole their music. Southern rock is close. Maybe alternative country is better. They mix it up. Country. Rock. Blues.

"Around that time (1989) Garth Brooks came out of Yukon and kind of blind sided everybody," Canada said. "Nobody thought this guy would ever make it."

Other Yukon residents followed the successful Brooks to Stillwater, where they played in clubs together and with other groups.

"Stillwater was a hot spot," Canada said. "There were probably 10 bands in town. Me and a buddy of mine played acoustics at Eskimo Joe's every Wednesday night for five years."

On Tuesday nights they were at the Wonder Dog, where Cross Canadian Ragweed performed on weekends. "That's really where we got started, in Stillwater," Canada said.

The group branched out into Tulsa, Oklahoma City and finally Texas before hitting the national scene. They've performed at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas seven or eight times.

They recently finished their sixth studio album, yet untitled. Last year, they released a CD/DVD, "Back to Tulsa: Live and Loud at Cain's Ballroom."

It's a hardworking group, performing more than 250 engagements a year. "Probably 230 are one-night gigs," Canada said. They play a lot of festivals in late spring and through the summer.

"We're just getting into the festival season," Canada said. "We'll play for 10,000 fans and up. But when we're out of state, or out of the region, we play a lot of nightclubs and bars. We like that a lot."