Red Dirt Revival: OSU alumnus Josh Crutchmer on the return of Cross Canadian Ragweed and Stillwater’s biggest concert yet

Red Dirt Revival: OSU alumnus Josh Crutchmer on the return of Cross Canadian Ragweed and Stillwater's biggest concert yet

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Media Contact: Page Mindedahl | Communications Specialist | 405-744-9782 | page.mindedahl@okstate.edu

The first guitar chord cracked through the air as the sun dipped behind the west end zone. A warm breeze carried the scent of sweat, dust and anticipation across Boone Pickens Stadium, where 45,000 boots stomped not for football, but for Red Dirt legends.

Cross Canadian Ragweed was back for one electric weekend in Stillwater - right where it all began.

In a town built on music, at a university deeply tied to Red Dirt's rise, this concert was more than just a show. It was a homecoming.

Stillwater, Oklahoma, has long been the heartbeat of Red Dirt - not just the name for the tough clay blanketing its backroads and pastures, but for the genre it birthed.

This year, the community that launched a movement welcomed history: a four-night reunion of Cross Canadian Ragweed, one of Red Dirt's most legendary bands, shaking the walls of Boone Pickens Stadium and echoing through the roots of the genre itself.

For Oklahoma State University alumnus and Rolling Stone contributor Josh Crutchmer, the announcement of this concert wasn't just exciting - it was almost unthinkable. After years of covering Red Dirt and country music, Crutchmer believed a Ragweed reunion was off the table.

Until, suddenly, it wasn't.

"I didn't actually think this band would ever reunite," Crutchmer said. "Literally, a year ago, I was on the phone with Cody Canada, and he told me there was no chance. What I didn't realize was that just putting that in Rolling Stone set off a chain of events that ultimately led to this happening."

Red Dirt Roots

Cross Canadian Ragweed, formed in the mid-1990s, became the defining sound of Red Dirt music, blending rock, country and raw Oklahoma storytelling.

Josh Crutchmer, an OSU alumnus and Red Dirt scribe, is releasing his new book, "Red Dirt Unplugged" this spring.

The quartet of Cody Canada, Grady Cross, Randy Ragsdale and Jeremy Plato all have Oklahoma roots. The band has known each other since grade school and began playing in Ragsdale's home every night of the week under the guidance of Ragsdale's father, Johnny, who worked with musicians throughout the state.

After high school, the band moved to Stillwater; the rest is history.

Ragweed's rise coincided with a golden era of Stillwater's music scene - one that shaped a generation of OSU students and the genre itself.

It all started in the late '70s and early '80s with a ragtag group of songwriters holed up in a farmhouse outside of Stillwater. Led by Bob Childers, the man many call the godfather of Red Dirt, they built a scene fueled by late-night jam sessions and a shared love of storytelling. That house, simply known as "The Farm," became the genre's incubator.

By the time Cross Canadian Ragweed rolled into town in the '90s, Red Dirt had outgrown its back-porch beginnings. The college bars along Washington Street - most famously The Wormy Dog Saloon - became the launchpad for bands that blended country, rock and a little bit of rebellion. Ragweed, along with acts like Jason Boland & The Stragglers and Stoney LaRue, took the sound beyond Oklahoma, turning Stillwater into a Red Dirt Mecca.

Even after Ragweed's breakup in 2010, the music never left. Turnpike Troubadours, Mike McClure and countless others carried the torch while a new wave of artists, from Flatland Cavalry to Koe Wetzel, kept the fire burning.

A Homecoming Years in the Making

For a decade, Ragweed was the soundtrack to every Stillwater bar, house party and tailgate. The band's impact on OSU culture resembled Pearl Jam's grip on Seattle in the '90s. Then, in 2010, the band called it quits, leaving fans with little hope of a return.

But last fall, something changed.

"We had tried to put something together in 2024, but ultimately, it just didn't work out," said Kyle Waters, OSU Athletics senior associate athletic director of facilities. "The president of the promoter group we are working with, Russell Doussan, was in Nashville with Cross Canadian's agents and tested their interest."

It was a quick turn of events once OSU was given the green light.

"They came back to us in September of 2024 and said, 'If we were ever gonna get back together, we would want to do it here in Stillwater.' So after that, we had our staff working long, hard hours to put everything together and get tickets for sale on Oct. 3," Waters said.

For the band, this wasn't just another show - it was a full-circle moment years in the making.

Cody Canada and The Departed were performing their annual Homecoming weekend set at Eskimo Joe's. Unbeknownst to the crowd, all four original members of Ragweed were in town, reuniting behind the scenes. As the band stood together midfield at Boone Pickens Stadium before the OSU Homecoming football game, the ovation they received planted the seed they needed to take in everything that was about to happen.

"That weekend was everything," Crutchmer said. "It cut through 15 years of being broken up in a day-and-a-half. And after that, it was just a matter of when, not if."

Their Biggest Stage Yet

Fast forward a few months and what started as a one-night-only event quickly became a full-blown festival. What was initially expected to sell around 32,000 tickets ballooned to over 170,000 - and could have gone even higher. Cross Canadian Ragweed shared the weekend with Turnpike Troubadours, Jason Boland & The Stragglers, Stoney LaRue and many more acts around the OSU campus.

"Their big dream was maybe selling out one night," Crutchmer said. "Now we've done four. It's a level of success that even they couldn't have imagined."

At one point, more than 217,000 people were in the ticket queue - a staggering number that captured just how high the anticipation was for this legendary event.

"I had three laptops going, my phone and a tablet, and still waited over five hours in that ticket queue," said Megan Rollins, a 2002 OSU graduate. "That little walking guy on the loading screen kept me on my toes. But honestly, I would've waited twice as long - Ragweed back in Stillwater? That's history, and I wasn't missing it."

The concert wasn't just a reunion; it was also a massive fundraising opportunity. A portion of ticket sales will go toward OSU Athletics' Name, Image and Likeness efforts, supporting student-athletes in the new era of college sports.

"It's just a great event to create revenue that wasn't there before to be put in the pool," Waters said. " It's not found money, but it will be money well spent."

NIL laws were enacted at the beginning of the decade and have transformed the college game. Student-athletes now earn money for their play, with recruiting becoming a year-round effort. Between NIL and the shifting conference landscape, OSU must navigate these waters with the rest of the country. The new NIL laws have caused a need for more funding to entice players to come to Stillwater, which is why the concert is so imperative to success in this new world of college athletics.

"It's not just about nostalgia," Crutchmer said. "This will have a lasting impact on OSU and its athletes. It's rare to see music and sports collide in a way that directly benefits both."

A Scene That Never Left

While this reunion is monumental, it's also a testament to Red Dirt music's staying power.

In the years since Ragweed disbanded, the genre has only grown. Bands like Turnpike Troubadours and Koe Wetzel continue to name-drop Ragweed in their lyrics, cementing their place as legends.

"There's an aura around Ragweed now," Crutchmer said. "They became these mythical figures. Younger fans who never saw them live now wish they had. And those who did see them never stopped talking about it."

Now, for one long Stillwater weekend, past and present Red Dirt fans finally got their moment. The red dirt on the roads will be churning with all the truck traffic coming home, echoes of the Wormy Dog will come alive, and a new era of concerts in Stillwater is hopefully on the horizon.

Who would have thought all of this fervor was just a dream not that long ago?

"This was the biggest party Stillwater had ever seen," Crutchmer said. "It's like winning a high-stakes Bedlam game - except this time, we got to celebrate for four straight nights."