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Artist
Cross Canadian Ragweed
12+ albums
countrySouthern RockAlt-countryRed Dirtcountry rock
about
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, Oklahoma. They all wanted to get out, and music seemed like a good escape. When 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 neighbor'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 pushed 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 established 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
