Why I’m Excited To See Cody Canada at Crossroads BBQ & Brew Music Festival

If you haven't heard, fresh off FIVE sold-out stadium shows with his band Cross Canadian Ragweed, Cody Canada is bringing The Departed to Victoria, TX for a stacked festival with Braxton Keith, Tyler Halverson, and over a dozen Texas BBQ joints.

I really want to hear why you're excited to see Cody Canada on November 8th at Crossroads BBQ & Brew Music Festival. Full details, lineup, and tickets here. But first, here's why I'm excited.

Cody Canada at Crossroads BBQ & Brew Music Festival

The first Cross Canadian Ragweed album I purchased was HIGHWAY 377. It was released in early 2001, and I bought the CD about a year before I joined the Army in 2002. Their Live at Billy Bob's album is still one of the best live albums of all time.

I know that I'm not alone when I say this, but I took Ragweed with me everywhere I went in my 20s. I was listening to "Long Way Home" through a Discman on my first flight into Iraq. I had my entire platoon singing along to "The President Song." Everyone loved that one over there.

Cody Canada at Crossroads BBQ & Brew, Nov. 8th

While in Baghdad, we'd occasionally get to "visit" Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). That was a treat because they had a Burger King, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and the biggest Post Exchange (basically an Army Walmart) I've ever seen had been set up there.

This was before MP3s and streaming music, so each time I went, I would scour the CD section looking for new music. I vividly recall the feeling of excitement I felt when I found a copy of Cross Canadian Ragweed's Soul Gravy just sitting on a shelf, right there in Baghdad. I don't have the words to explain to you just how little my brain could comprehend how or why it made its way there. Turns out they'd blown up even bigger since I left the U.S. I, of course, bought it.

The first time through the album, "Sick and Tired" hit me hard. I listened to it over and over again; it became our unofficial missing-home song. Even after we redeployed to Germany, I wore that song out in the barracks. At that point, all I wanted was to be back home in Texas.

All of us have our own, very personal Ragweed memories. And that's the point. Maybe you saw them for the first time at a tiny dive bar in 1998. Maybe you were at their live recording at Billy Bob's. I know some of you made it out to those Ragweed Red Dirt Roundup shows. To one generation, my generation, they were special and so important, and they still are today. That's why, this year, after reuniting for the first time in almost 15 years, they sold out FIVE stadium shows.

It's also why I'm excited to welcome Cody Canada to the first-ever Crossroads BBQ & Brew Music Festival on November 8th in Victoria, TX. C'mon out, enjoy some Texas BBQ, and let's all relive our glory days together. This one's gonna be special.

Crossroads BBQ Stage Schedule (Subject to Change)

• 1:00 - Charlie Alstrom
• 2:30 - Zachary Grant
• 4:00 - Staud Brothers
• 5:30 - Tyler Halverson
• 7:00 - Cody Canada & the Departed
• 9:00 - Braxton Keith

Download the free Radio Texas, LIVE! mobile app to hear Cody Canada, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Koe Wetzel, Braxton Keith, Turnpike Troubadours, and all the best Texas & Red Dirt 24/7. Click here for IOS or here for ANDROID.