
SALT LAKE CITY Fresh off a successful weekend at the Braun Brothers Reunion in Challis, Idaho, Cody Canada is headed to Salt Lake City Monday night for his second show of the year in Utah.
The former lead singer of Cross Canadian Ragweed returned to Salt Lake in January after a two year absence and played one of the best small venue concerts of the year. Canada seemed to play with a renewed energy, just like he did when he first formed The Departed. What those who attended the show may not have realized at the time was the band was in transition at the time. Eric "Waldo" Hansen and Ross Smith (ex-Wade Bowen band) have now joined Canada and his longtime musical partner on bass, Jeremy Plato.

"It's been like an old pair of shoes," Canada said. "I know that's overused sometimes, but that's what it is. Everyone just feels renewed. Everybody feels great, energetic about all this, which makes the new songs sound even better than they do on the record and the old songs sound better than they ever have."
Canada's show in January included songs of the band's latest album, HippieLovePunk ("Inbetweener," "Comin' To Me"), some Ragweed classics ("Alabama," "Constantly"), and a few surprises that many fans thought would never be played again like "Boys From Oklahoma."
In some recent shows, Canada has even dusted off songs from the Ragweed catalog like "Lighthouse Keeper."
He said now with multi-instrumentalist Smith in the band, Smith can play guitar on the Cross Canadian Ragweed songs and keyboards on Departed songs.
"Really, right now at any given point I can dust any (song) off," Canada said.
Because of that, both old school Ragweed fans and Canada are satisfied.
"I don't really get a lot of people asking about Ragweed getting back together, which was starting to get on my nerves a little bit, because (I was thinking), 'Well, what's wrong with this band?' But now, playing those old tunes, I don't get those questions anymore. It's really great," he said.

Over the summer, Canada went back to his old stomping grounds of Stillwater, Oklahoma. While he took a trip down memory lane while he was there by driving by Ragweed's first ever practice house, the real reason for his trip was both to mourn and celebrate the life of Tom Skinner.
Before the Red Dirt music scene took hold in Texas with bands like Reckless Kelly, Micky and the Motorcars, and Stoney LaRue, there was the Oklahoma Red Dirt scene which many credit Skinner was being one of the founders of more than 20 years ago.
It was because of Skinner that Canada became the musician he is today.
"He took me in like I was one of his own. The very first night I went to Stillwater, Oklahoma, because I'd heard this scene of music where there was where all these hippies writing these songs together, sharing riffs and publishing," he said.
When Canada was 17 he asked Skinner if he could sneak him into one of his shows so he could see him play. Skinner told him to, "Grab a guitar and tell everyone else I was his nephew," recalled Canada who successfully snuck into the show that night,
"He was such a good soul. He took care of me and just so many people in that scene. He took us all in like he'd known us for years. He will be sorely missed," he said.

Now, Canada is about the same age Skinner was when he first met him. Before his death, Canada said Skinner thanked him and others in the Red Dirt music scene,
"He said some really nice things," Canada recalled. "Just really appreciated us sticking up for the music he believed in."
The Deseret News talked to Canada from his home in Texas as he was packing up his truck to get ready for one last summer outing/fishing trip with his family before his two boys had to go back to school, and to record a new acoustic album following the success of Some Old, Some New, Maybe a Cover or Two.
While HippieLovePunk was released just this year, Canada is already working on new material. But he's in no rush to release a full album. Unlike some artists that will wait until the final product is recorded before unveiling it to audiences, Canada said he's not afraid to drop a brand new song on audiences at any time.
"I used to like to have something out once a year. I will have another acoustic live record out before this year is over with. I just some material to be able to write. I want to be able to practice it on the road. I'm not real big on the woodshedding where you practice over and over in the shop until it sounds OK enough to record. I like to work it out on the road so it changes and you finally find a groove for it," he said.
Canada at one point was covering Pearl Jam's "Not For You" during his sets. While Canada and Eddie Vedder are both great songwriters fronting great bands, the combination of Texas Red Dirt and the Seattle sound of the early '90s would seem like polar opposites.
I asked Canada about his love of Pearl Jam.

"I grew up with Pearl Jam in early 90s. I loved the intensity of it. The music really bit me when I was a kid. I guess I never grew up," he said. "We're just fans of music, me and jeremy. We just like real music with real lyrics from real musicians from real recordings. There's nothing worse, in my opinion, than terrible recordings and when you see the band, they can't come anywhere close to playing their instruments.
"But on any given night, we could play a Pearl Jam cover or Johnny Paycheck or Willie Nelson," he said.
Canada said lyrically, Pearl Jam's last release, Lightning Bolt, was Vedder's best yet. He joked that when he listens to those lyrics, he cringes at some of the lyrics of Ragweed's earlier recordings.
"I just think, 'Man, if I had just thought about it for one more hour, I'd have been proud of it today,'" he said with a laugh.
Cody Canada and The Departed's Show Monday night will be at the Music Garage, 250 W. 1300 South, NOT In the Venue where it was originally scheduled. The show starts at 8pm and is all ages.