Musical Medicine
Cody Canada admits that he should have taken the sound advice of his wife, one of his best buddies and his old guitar tech years ago.
“All three of them told me, ‘just get a drummer.’ Get one drummer that you like, and you and Jeremy go out and play your songs. And I was like, ‘no, no, no, I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do that. I’m gonna have a big band,’” the singersongwriter and guitarist said, referring to his longtime bandmate, bassist/singer Jeremy Plato.
“And that didn’t work. And it didn’t fail miserably; I thought we had a good couple records. It just seemed like I was forcing it. Now, with the three of us, it’s just incredibly natural. And we’re adding back the old tunes. I got over my huffy and puffiness over the band breaking up, so now I’m singing all my songs again. I lost my voice for a bit, got my voice back, and now I’m singing everything again. So, it’s fuller and it’s more fun — and it’s a hell of a lot easier.”
Eight years after the breakup of his seminal red dirt band Cross Canadian Ragweed, Canada, 42, said he has finally let go of the bitterness and come back to making music his way. So, it’s no coincidence that the latest album from his current band, Cody Canada & The Departed, calls to mind vintage Ragweed.
“The whole throwback sound is me just being me. I wasn’t
trying to recreate something. ... I started thinking too much. And then one day, I said, ‘To hell with that, I’m not gonna think anymore. I’m just gonna write,’” Canada said by phone last week from his adopted hometown of New Braunfels, Texas.
Aptly named “3,” the summer release is the first for the Texas-based outfit as a power trio. Canada is doing triple duty as the trio’s frontman, primary songwriter and lead guitarist alongside Plato, who has been his stalwart bandmate since Ragweed recorded its first album back in the 1990s, and drummer Eric “Waldo” Hansen, a longtime pal from Stillwater who is marking his third year with The Departed after the band weathered a series of lineup shake-ups.
“Now, it’s really back to the Stillwater three. … Plato and Waldo and I have been playing together forever. And we’re back to all Okies in the band, which is
pretty rad,” said Canada, who grew up of Yukonand came of age in Stillwater.
Homecoming Medicine
Canada and his cohorts will return to their home state to play the sixth annual Medicine Stone music and camping festival, set for Thursday through Sept. 22 at the scenic Diamondhead Resort in Tahlequah. Medicine Stone, which takes its title from the poetic name the Osage Indians gave the Illinois River, will bring together about 30acts, including Oklahoma-rooted red dirt players like Mike McClure, Red Dirt Rangers, Kaitlin Butts, Randy Crouch, Read Southall and event co-founders Jason Boland and The Stragglers and the Turnpike Troubadours, along with Texas country talents like Reckless Kelly, Micky and the Motorcars, Randy Rogers Band, Charley Crockett and Jamie Lin Wilson.
“This year, they put us in front of the Toadies, and I could not be more excited,” said Canada, who will be playing with The Departed Sept. 21 on the main stage. “Man, it’s a good feeling
to be there. The Turnpike boys always make me feel good .... And Boland can’t get rid of me.”
Canada will join Boland and McClure in an afternoonset Sept. 21 on one of the festival’s side stages. Canada and The Departed worked on “3” with McClure, an acclaimed songwriter and producer who helped oversee multiple albums for Ragweed.
“We took almost a five-year hiatus from each other — and that sucked. That sucked really bad. I kind of lost him in the breakup of the band; I feel like I lost one of the kids in the divorce. I just called him one day, and I said, ‘Dude, I’m done with this. I miss you. You’re like my best friend in the world, and I miss you. And honestly, my music is starting to kind of suffer because I don’t know how to produce anything.’ So, we kissed and made up,”Canada said.
Finding inspiration
The trio and McClure recorded “3” at The Zone Recording Studio, a peaceful
spot tucked away in the picturesque Texas Hill Country.
“Mike said, ‘How do you want this to sound?’ And I said, ‘I want it to sound like me and you. I don’t want it to sound like any other record on purpose. if it sounds like something, then it’s just because that’s how we are,’” Canada said.
“This is the easiest form of a band that I’ve ever been in. I feel extremely blessed and extremely spoiled at this point.”
He and McClure penned “Lipstick,” a country rocker tinted with betrayal and harmonica, in the studio parking lot, and the band grooved through the swampy “Daughter of the Devil,” a tune McClure wrote with the late red dirt pioneer Tom Skinner. The Departed also paid homage to Skinner, who died in 2015, with his wistful song “One of These Days,” which Plato crooned with Wilson on harmony vocals.
Canadaalso found inspiration in his family, recording the ballad “Satellites and Meteors,” which he wrote about his romance with his wife of 20 years, Shannon.
“We’ve had a lot of downs with The Departed, because it just took a long time for people to catch on. It took a while for me to become myself again so people started coming around. Now my crowds are back to like Ragweed size. It’s awesome again. And she’s stuck through it all,” he said. “She’ll always have a song, no matter how many records I put out.”
The song “Paranoid” is about anxiety, but Canada said he penned it at the request of his sons, Dierks, 13, an aspiring guitarist, and Willy, 10, a budding drummer.
“They were really into Green Day. And they both challenged me to write kind of a punk rock song,” the proud father said. “Everybody brags on their kids, but even if they weren’t mine, I would tell the parents ‘good job.’ They’re polite and their ability to learn music is crazy to me. I did the same thing, I know where they get it . ... But with my genes and Shannon’s genes in there, these kids are extremely determined at doing whatever it is they want to do — they’re gonna do it.”