Cody Canada talks music, touring and Dierks Bentley friendship ahead of Fort Worth concert
After 30 years in the music businesses and ventures with two bands, Cody Canada is showing no signs of slowing down.
The 48-year-old Texas native broke out on the scene in the late ‘90s with his band Cross Canadian Ragweed, who helped popularize Red Dirt music in the new millennium. The genre began in Stillwater, Okla., and is a mix of country, rock, Americana, blues and folk.
In total, Ragweed released five albums from 1998 to 2009 with hit songs such as “Sick and Tired,” “17” and “Alabama.”
However, in 2010 the band split, citing personal and musical differences. But Canada picked up his guitar quick and formed a new band called The Departed in 2011.
From then on, The Departed has been Canada’s main focus. The band has released four albums over the past 13 years. A couple years ago, the band even rerecorded one of Ragweed’s old albums, “Soul Gravy.”
Ahead of Canada and The Departed’s show on Saturday at Fort Worth’s Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall, the singer chatted with the Star-Telegram about music, touring and his friendship with fellow singer Dierks Bentley.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Star-Telegram: First, I wanted to ask you about touring. I know you’re a busy guy and always on the road for shows. Do you see yourself as some kind of unofficial tour guide? You’ve probably been to more cities than the average person. Do friends or family come to you and ask you about certain cities?
Cody Canada: Yeah, I mean, we all talk. It’s the same network. Like we used to play this place in Portland called Dante’s Inferno. It was a pretty dangerous part of town. So, like, I’ll reach out and ask people if they still play there. And people call me and say, “How was your night at so-and-so.” Yeah, I feel like a tour guide. You know, mainly around a state’s music venues. I think I feel like an elder statesman sometimes, but I’ll take it.
ST: You do a lot of shows around the country. In June alone, you were in Utah, Colorado and Texas. With so many shows in so many different cities, I was curious about your set list. Does it change every night, or do you only play certain songs in certain cities? What’s your thought process behind making the set list?
CC: I have always changed my set lists nightly. Because back in the Ragweed days — and still the same now, but especially in the Ragweed days — we were playing so much that people were traveling two or three times to see us. I’m a massive Pearl Jam fan, and they always change their set list every night because they want it to be a different experience for other people. Also, if you do the same setlist every night, it’s gonna get real boring. Like the other day we were in Colorado Springs putting on a show and played for two hours. This family came up to me after the show and they wanted to hear this song. I said, ‘“Well man, I promise next time we come through.”’ And he goes, “Oh, we’re coming tomorrow night.” Then you just tell me what you want, and if I know it, we’ll play it. So that next night it was a two-and-a-half hour completely different set.
ST: Speaking of music, your last single, “Elle,” came out at the end of last year. That’s a really good tune and I like the solo in the middle of it. I was curious how that song came to be?
CC: So my wife owns a School of Rock in New Braunfels, and the first summer we had a summer camp and this girl named Elle shows up. She was probably 13 years old and just a mesmerizing songwriter. It was crazy that she was that age and so nonchalant about it. So I get to be good friends with her and her family and she had already made a record. Then at 16 she got her heart broke and was devastated. I never had that having two boys. Elle and my oldest boy Dierks are the same age, and I never had to go through a teenage girl heartbreak. It was one of those things that just hit me and I’m like, “I have to write a song for this girl.” Because I felt like she needed help in the healing process.
It was one of those things where I hate to say I was inspired by her misfortune, but I was. I was so inspired that the song basically wrote itself. I really have to say that I haven’t been that proud of a song in quite a few years. We have our own studio, so I got her in there and she sang harmony [on the song]. She’s just a good kid, not even a kid, a young lady now. Anytime when I’m in the studio and I need help with harmony or something, all I have to do is send her a text.
ST: It was a great tune and one of the several singles The Departed have released in the last couple of years. Do y’all have anything new coming soon or anything you’re planning to drop later in the year?
CC: Actually, we have singles stacked up. We’re just gonna release them when one starts losing steam and we’ll send another one out.
ST: The single shift is something I’ve felt as a music consumer. It seems like we’re getting more singles from artists than full fledged albums. As someone making music, have you felt that shift at all?
CC: I was the one that went against it. I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to do just singles because I’m all about the artwork. I’m all about it. Does this song work with this song? Is there a way we can wait make it better? My buddy Dierks Bentley told me years ago that this was gonna happen. I didn’t believe it.
Then, in March 2020, I was at the Charlotte airport, and they said there was [COVID-19] in the airport, and I didn’t even know what it was. But I was on the plane and reading an article where Sheryl Crow, she’s one of my favorites, said that she’s going to make singles because, at this point, she’s wasting material. Then I talked to the Turnpike Troubadours manager a while back, and he said, “Man, you’re just gonna waste songs. If you put 12 songs on an album, they might hear one or two.” Best way to get them to hear it is one at a time. So that’s what I’m gonna do. I didn’t really like doing it, but now it’s less stressful to deal with.
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ST: You mentioned Dierks Bentley. Funnily enough, I actually just spoke with him last month before he came to Fort Worth for a show. I know you guys have been friends for years and one of your sons is even named after him. Do you remember when you first met Dierks?
CC: Yeah, we were at the Exit/In in Nashville, and he was leaning against the wall backstage all by himself. Our Nashville manager said, “Hey, I want you to meet somebody. He’s the next big thing.” And I was like, ‘“Oh, what a cheesy thing to say.”’ [Laughs] But he was right. We almost instantly hit it off. That was probably 2001 or 2002.
Then we were on our third United States tour together, and my wife and I got pregnant. I had several different ideas for names and so did she if it was a boy. I still tell her this all the time, I was going to say, “What about Dierks?” I thought she’s not going to go for that. Then we’re talking on the phone, and she says, “What about Dierks?” [Laughs] I said, “What a great idea.” Here we are 19 years later.
ST: You also mentioned the School of Rock in New Braunfels earlier. It sounds like a cool project for y’all, and I know it’s been open for around six years now. When you look back from 2018 to now and have seen the school change and grow, what’s that like?
CC: It’s so awesome. I can’t take credit for it because it’s my wife’s passion project. As I’m talking to you right now, they’re loading gear because they’re about to go on a tour of the south starting Saturday. I’ve always appreciated music, but it’s made me more aware of certain things in music. It made me aware that I should probably practice more, even though I know what I’m doing. It’s been a blessing. There’s a lot of kids that are graduating this year who were our first kids.
ST: Very cool to know that program is out there. Last question: You have the Fort Worth show coming up soon. What can fans expect from it?
CC: People always wanted to hear the old Ragweed stuff, and there was a couple of years in the beginning with The Departed that I didn’t want to do that since it was such a messy divorce. It just really hurt to do it because I didn’t want that band to go away, but it did. Next year, The Departed will have been around for as long as Ragweed was. Now I have enough material from both bands and brand new stuff that it’s so easy to pick and make people happy. If they want to hear something from The Departed, I can throw it in. If they want to hear Ragweed, I can make the whole night Ragweed.
So I’ll probably feel it out online and see what everyone says and how they feel about the night. Really, as cheesy as it sounds, I’m just in the business of making myself and everybody else happy.
Cody Canada and The Departed are playing at 7 p.m. Saturday at Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall in Fort Worth.
