Attention, Ragweed fans.
As one of the cornerstones of the Red Dirt movement, Cross Canadian Ragweed has remained one of the most important country bands over the past three decades. Forming in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in the mid-1990s, the group’s impact truly cannot be understated, influencing some of the brightest stars in the Texas and Oklahoma scene, such as Turnpike Troubadours, Koe Wetzel, Wyatt Flores, Parker McCollum, Shane Smith & the Saints and many more.
Simply put, Ragweed caught fire early upon the release of their 1998 debut album, Carney. Throughout their career, the Oklahoman band released seven studio albums and three live albums, but sadly disbanded in 2010. Red Dirt fans were beyond heartbroken when the group broke up, and from a conversation with frontman Cody Canada, it seemed there was no way in hell they would get back together, comparing their breakup to a divorce.
Against all odds, 2025 proved to be nothing short of a miracle for the band. After making their long-awaited return to the stage in January at Mile 0 Fest in Key West, Florida, Ragweed dropped the bombshell and announced their grand reunion: “The Boys From Oklahoma” Concert series, a four-night experience in April, along with fellow Red Dirt legends, Turnpike Troubadours. This would later expand into a “Texas Encore” edition of the reunion, which included Shane Smith & The Saints, Wade Bowen and more in August.
With so much momentum heading into 2026, Ragweed kept it going with another another two “Boys From Oklahoma” shows: one “Cornhuskers Edition” in the University of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium in August and an additional show in Stillwater at Boone Pickens Stadium to commemorate the one-year anniversary of their reunion in April. Additionally, they headlined Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado, for the first time ever back in August, an achievement that Canada says was one of the main goals after their reunion last year.
Given how successful their long-awaited return has been, coupled with the hefty amount of shows they’ve played over the past two years, the final step in the reunion would be a brand new album. Fortunately, it looks like it’s finally in the works.
Taking to Instagram this morning to provide a lengthy, nearly 20-minute update about the state of the band, new music, shows and his life in general, Canada would reveal that they are “nearly half way” done with a new project from Cross Canadian Ragweed.
After revealing that he took his time to enjoy his life outside of music and experience other bands such as Turnstile’s music and liveshows, Canada would explain that he finally found the creative spark to write again for himself instead of viewing it as a job.
“All this downtime and all this new music has sparked the old creative thing again. That was the whole point of taking all this time off — to clear my brain and to get ready to write again where it wasn’t a job, where I wasn’t scared of it. I’m talking to Gracie [Yates] about how I’ve been scared of myself for so many years, and now I’m not.
Now we’re ready to go back and start writing and get deep into it. And I can tell you right now, that I feel like I’m at a halfway point for our next project — a Ragweed record. So that’s in the works thanks to the time off… It’s been a great couple of years for us — for the Ragweed family and beyond. You guys have done wonderful things for us.”
Later on in the update video, Canada would also reveal that he’s been working on scheduling time to write with fellow Red Dirt legend Mike McClure, produced all of Ragweed’s original records and co-wrote popular tracks such as “Fightin’ For,” “Carney Man” and “Dimebag.”
“Finally get to sit down with my number one dude, Mike McClure. We’ve been trying to find a place to sit and write songs. Talked about going placed. Talked about going to different climates. We talked about going to the mountains and the water and the ocean [and] the woods. And I realized that that was what I was talking about earlier, I was running; I was scared of stuff, but it’s like, ‘You can write a song anyways.’
We are going to camp out for about a week, and we’re gonna get some sh*t done. We’ve written a couple for this record that I’ve been playing that I didn’t know where they were gonna go. Two of them were written before the reunion, but they’re going that direction. I can’t just write for one act. You just got to write a song, and that’s been hard to do. And now I feel like we’re gonna get it done.”
Finally, Canada would clear up any questions surrounding Ragweed’s touring plans for 2027. Here, he’d admit that he isn’t quite sure exactly they’re doing at this point, explaining that they don’t want to limit themselves to massive arena shows like they have been doing over the past year and a half. Instead, he’d said that they’re strongly considering returning to a more traditional touring approach by booking multi-night stays at different theaters
“I don’t know. The one question I can answer is there has to be a life beyond stadiums, because you can’t do that forever. F*ck, we didn’t even know we could do it the first time, but we did it. It was fun, but I don’t we should do that. We shouldn’t aim for that all the time, so, yes, we will be doing different things next year.
I don’t know how many shows. I do know that there will be more personal shows… I guess that means theaters… But we can’t just keep it all in stadiums, so we’re gonna expand. Do some stuff a couple nights in a row [in] different towns, some towns we’ve already done. Some towns we’re gonna do instead of towns we’ve already done.
We’re not just gonna pop in for a couple of years and do some stadiums and get out, because we’re having a lot of fun. So stay tuned for that.”
Simply put, the future is looking incredibly bright for Cross Canadian Ragweed and fans of the Red Dirt legends.
Cross Canadian Ragweed Tour Dates
October 9 — Durant, Oklahoma — The Grand Theater – Choctaw Casino & Resort
October 10 — Durant, Oklahoma — The Grand Theater – Choctaw Casino & Resort
December 4 – Las Vegas, Nevada — Brooklyn Bowl
