My take: Cross Canadian Ragweed at Cain’s Ballroom

Posted by brandy

on October 28, 2008M at 11:38 pm

Cody Canada at the Stagecoach Music Festival earlier this year. (Associated Press photo)

My sister-in-law, Amy McDonnell, and I experienced a great night of music, without children or deadlines, Monday night at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa.

It was kind of an early Christmas gift to each other to take in Cross Canadian Ragweed’s electric show at the historic venue. As a single mom of two girls, she doesn’t get to go to many concerts, and as an entertainment writer, I rarely get the chance – or have much desire, to be quite honest – to go to show that doesn’t involve work.

But we both love us some Ragweed - and since Amy didn’t get to go with me to the band’s Family Jam last month at Oklahoma City’s Zoo Amphitheatre – we snagged a pair of tickets.

It was my first show at Cain’s, still the “Home of Bob Wills” though he died in 1975, and I loved the historical ambiance, the solid acoustics and the springy wood floor, perfect for nonstop dancing to some scorching country-rock. Unfortunately, the ballroom was not even half full for the band’s Monday night electric show. (The Oklahoma-Texas band also performed an acoustic show Sunday night at Cain’s.)

But the crowd was rowdy, and the quartet got the concert off to a raucous start with “Late Last Night.” They sounded terrific, and frontman Cody Canada looked sharp in a button-down shirt, vest and tie.

It didn’t take long for him to roll up his sleeves as the band rocked through “The Deal,” “In Oklahoma” and “Anywhere But Here.” They smoked their way through my all-time favorite Ragweed song, “Alabama.” (Unfortunately, they didn’t play Amy’s fave, “Carney Man,” but we didn’t really expect it.)

Though it was the electric show of the band’s two-night stand, Canada took the spotlight for a few acoustic songs, including a beautiful one he dedicated to his son Dierks (named for pal Dierks Bentley) and vowed he wouldn’t record on an album because he doesn’t want any Nashville fat cats making money off his kid. (He said the band plans to start recording its new album around March.)

Of course, “Boys from Oklahoma” is always a highlight of a Ragweed show. The best renditions of this come at shows like the Family Jam, where this year Stoney LaRue, Randy Rogers, John Cooper, Tom Skinner and more chimed in on the ornery marijuana tribute. But “Boys from Oklahoma” always makes for a fun singalong, and Oklahoma City singer Denovan Ratcliffe made a solid contribution to the song.

Ratcliffe and his band Welcome the Silence opened the show, with Canada sitting in with them for a song. Another highlight of the Oklahoma City rockers’ set was their hard and heavy cover of REM’s “Losing My Religion.”

-BAM

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