Cross Canadian Ragweed to play reunion show with Turnpike Troubadours, The Great Divide at OSU

Music fans "Sick and Tired" of missing Cross Canadian Ragweed finally are getting the chance to see the influential Red Dirt band reunited once more.

Almost 15 years after the group went on hiatus, Ragweed has announced its return — at least for one show, to take place where the famed "Boys from Oklahoma" came of age: Stillwater, the birthplace of Red Dirt music and the launching pad for one of its foremost standard bearers.

Cross Canadian Ragweed — singer, songwriter and guitarist Cody Canada , bassist and singer Jeremy Plato, guitarist Grady Cross and drummer Randy Ragsdale — will play a reunion show April 12, 2025, at Boone Pickens Stadium at Oklahoma State University.

Fellow Oklahoma Red Dirt stars Turnpike Troubadours, who are two and half years into their own successful reunion , will co-headline what's billed as the first concert at Boone Pickens Stadium since the home of OSU football was rededicated in 2009 after a dramatic $286 million renovation.

Fellow Red Dirt icons The Great Divide (another reunion success story), Jason Boland & The Stragglers and Stoney LaRue also will be on the lineup for the Ragweed reunion show.

Named for one of Ragweed's fan-favorite songs, "The Boys from Oklahoma" concert is billed as a one-night-only event.

"The thing that sticks out the most to me about Ragweed was all the people that we met. People that I'm still friends with, from Portland, Oregon, to Ybor City, Florida, and from New York to San Diego. That's why there's a part of me that never wants to quit doing this. I'm nostalgic for that. I think that everybody should have a little nostalgia in their life," Canada said in a statement.

"So, let's get together, and let's make sure that we sound really good, and let's make people smile. Let's make ourselves smile, and let's make McClure and Jason and Stoney and the Turnpike boys smile, too."

Who is Cross Canadian Ragweed?

Formed in 1994 in Yukon, Cross Canadian Ragweed planted its musical roots in the fertile Red Dirt soil of Stillwater .

On a homestead nicknamed The Farm, singer-songwriters like the late Bob Childers, Tom Skinner and Jimmy LaFave, along with the Red Dirt Rangers, became mentors to a new generation of players, including Cross Canadian Ragweed, The Great Divide, LaRue and Boland.

Over the next 16 years, Ragweed grew an impressive reach, taking the distinctly Oklahoman Red Dirt music far and wide .

Ragweed's success bloomed into and with a major-label record deal on Universal South, which released the band's 2002 self-titled album, 2004's "Soul Gravy," 2005's "Garage," 2006's "Back to Tulsa — Live and Loud at Cain's Ballroom," 2007's "Mission California" and 2009's "Happiness and All the Other Things." (In 2009, Universal South merged with Toby Keith's Show Dog Records to form Show Dog-Universal Music.)

More: Cross Canadian Ragweed reunion concert to benefit Oklahoma State athletics' NIL efforts

Although Ragweed's run with Universal South got off to a strong start, Canada told The Oklahoman in a 2022 interview that the deal soured once the label's founders — esteemed producers Tony Brown and Tim DuBois, a fellow Oklahoman and OSU alumnus — left in 2006.

Still, the band continued under the label, releasing its 10th (and currently final) studio album, "Happiness and All the Other Things," in 2009, marking Ragweed's 15th anniversary .

In May 2010, the seminal band shocked its fervent followers by announcing it was going on indefinite hiatus, giving the reason that Ragsdale, who lives in Yukon, needed to spend more time with his family, particularly his son, JC, who has autism. Ragweed played its last show in October 2010 at Joe’s on Weed Street in Chicago .

Canada and Plato quickly formed a new band called The Departed , while Cross bought the former 50 Yard Line Club , the first venue where Ragweed performed back in 1991, and rennamed it Grady's 66 Pub .

Fan speculation that there was more to Ragweed's don't-call-it-a-breakup breakup intensified when Ragsdale returned to the road as drummer for LaRue's band and The Departed never turned up on the lineup at Cross' Yukon pub Grady's 66, which often hosts Red Dirt bands. Cross and Ragsdale went on to form their own band, Cross Rags & Young, with singer-songwriter Jason Young.

"Ragweed was so much fun, I love those guys in the band with all my being, and I wish everybody well. I still keep in contact. But it got to the point where people started having kids, and the highway started taking its toll, and some people can handle it and some people can't," Canada told The Oklahoman in 2012 . “In my opinion, I'm going to be in bar for the rest of my life, whether it's a bar of 300 people or a bar of 3,000 people. That's the kind of music I do.”

But the band's legendarily loyal fan base has never stopped pining for the return of Ragweed. And the group has remained influential, from a name-drop in Dierks Bentley’s 2006 hit “Free And Easy” and Koe Wetzel’s 2019 homage “Ragweed” to the 2021 album "The Years: A MusicFest Tribute to Cody Canada and the music of Cross Canadian Ragweed" and even references to the band’s music in two different Stephen King novels.

Although he revisited his old group's 2004 album "Soul Gravy" with his Departed bandmates two years ago, Canada often expressed doubts about the likelihood of Ragweed ever getting back together.

But the Ragweed reunion show announcement Tuesday came after two weeks of feverish anticipation and speculation among Red Dirt, Texas country and alternative-country music fans.

The frenzy started in mid-September with the reactivation of the band's Facebook page , which had last been updated in August 2011, including the posting of a new profile picture of a draped red curtain. Subsequent posts sent fans into a veritable whirlwind of excitement.

How can fans get tickets to Cross Canadian Ragweed's reunion and how will it benefit OSU NIL efforts?

Tickets go on sale Oct. 11 to Cross Canadian Ragweed's April 2025 reunion show, with pre-sales beginning at 10 a.m. Oct. 7.

Tickets can be purchased at www.okstate.com/concert .

Fans are urged to sign up to get a pre-sale password Oct. 1-5 at www.theboysfromoklahoma.com .

OSU Athletic Director Chad Weiberg said in a statement that the concert will benefit OSU's NIL efforts. OSU has a general name, image and likeness fund that benefits every player on the football team's roster.

“We are excited to bring the first ever concert to Boone Pickens Stadium this spring and look forward to hosting this fantastic Oklahoma-based lineup in the home of the Cowboys," Weiberg said in the statement.

"This show will benefit OSU’s NIL efforts , and will also be a great event for our student-athletes, student body, alumni, fans and the community of Stillwater.”

This story was updated to add new information.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Cross Canadian Ragweed to play reunion show with Turnpike Troubadours, The Great Divide at OSU