Cross Canadian Ragweed

By Jerry Fink

Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008 | 2 a.m.

When we last spoke to Cross Canadian Ragweed the Oklahoma-bred, Texas-based alternative country/rock band it was putting the finishing touches on an as yet untitled album.

That was in May. The album, eventually titled “Mission California,” was released in October, debuting at No. 6 on Billboard’s Country Chart and at No. 30 on the Billboard Top 100 Chart.

Cross Canadian Ragweed will perform at the House of Blues on Sunday.

The band tours relentlessly, doing more than 250 engagements a year, most of them one-night stands.

Cross Canadian Ragweed doesn’t get to perform often on its home turf. But on New Year’s Day, the band performed at the Wormy Dog Saloon, a bar the members own in Oklahoma City. It’s just around the corner from Sooner singer Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill. Both are in Bricktown, a renovated section of the old downtown.

Co-founder Cody Canada spoke to the Sun recently as he stood outside a bar in Aspen, Colo. A new tour bus was parked nearby; the old one had been retired after four years and almost 500,000 miles.

On the group’s unusual name

It’s bits of the founders’ names Grady Cross (rhythm guitar), Canada (lead vocalist), Randy Ragsdale (drummer) and Matt Wiedemann (original bass player, who has been replaced by Jeremy Plato). Friends from childhood in Yukon, Okla., they joined forces in 1994 and began playing small-town bars becoming popular in Stillwater, home to Oklahoma State University and Eskimo Joe’s.

On ‘Mission California’

“I wrote all of the songs but two,” Canada said. “If there is a theme to the album it’s honesty. This is the most honest thing I’ve ever done. Usually, from the day I step out of a studio till I step back into a studio I’m writing stuff. With this one I got so busy that when I got home for Christmas break (two years ago), I wrote most of them in a week or two.”

On the band’s driving force

“We always tour, whether we have a record out or not. We’re on the road 250 to 260 days a year, with sporadic stops two weeks off in the summer, two weeks at Christmas. Time off for Thanksgiving and birthday parties. We love it,” Canada said.

“But last year we had a 7 1/2-week run without a break played every night and we told our booking agent we can’t do that anymore. We couldn’t do that when we first started the band 13 years ago. We like to play, but when we get too many nights in a row it starts to get a little old. Give us a couple of days to go home and recharge the batteries and hit it again and we’re ready to go ... We took those two weeks off last Christmas and by the time New Year’s Eve rolled around, we were chomping at the bits, ready to jam.”

On Velvet Revolver

“Individually, all of us have musical tastes that are a little bit different. I’ve been dying to see Velvet Revolver. I looked in the newspaper in Austin (Texas) and found out they’re going to be there at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q on Jan. 31. I called our booking agent and said don’t you dare book us that date. I have a feeling if I don’t go see them they’re going to break up.” Velvet Revolver is a hard-rock group formed by three former members of Guns N’ Roses Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum; Scott Weiland, former lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots; and Dave Kushner of the ’80s punk band Wasted Youth.

On the popularity of country music

“We’re not really that country or that rock. We’re kind of in between. But the last three years we’ve really been hot and heavy, really popular. We can drive into Minneapolis on a Monday and it’s snowing and there’s 400 people waiting to see us.”