Cody Canada departed one band, named his next one The Departed and will arrive Wednesday at the Revolution Room in Little Rock for a show.
The band, minus his name out front, released an album last year titled Adventus, Latin for “arrival.”
“We are rockin’ harder now,” Canada says. “It’s a little more defined, I guess, and we’re diggin’ it a lot.”
Canada fronted Cross Canadian Ragweed for 15 years and nine albums before deciding to move on, taking bassist Jeremy Plato with him. He added others as he moved to a harder rock approach, including another lead singer and guitarist,Seth James. Other members of the group are Steve Littleton on Hammond organ and Chris Doege on drums.
Canada’s first name for the band was Departure, but he decided it wasn’t quite right.
“Departure didn’t sound permanent,” he says. “As far as Ragweed went, it was fun, but we were done. I learned a lot from those days. This is a new adventure.”
Adventus is the group’s first album of original music. The 2011 album, This Is Indian Land, featured songs by other Oklahoma musicians who had inspired Canada in his early days with Ragweed. The band was based in Stillwater.
While Canada has the new songs, he also has no problem including material from his CCR days.
“Those things are mine. I wrote them, and I don’t think there are any rules on that. And it’s not like that other CCR, where Creedence [Clearwater Revival] kept going, with a slight name change,” he says.
In his Cross Canadian Ragweed days, Little Rock was a frequent stop, one for which Canada says he developed a fondness.
“I’ve always had real good fans there,” which he notes is the good thing about playing so much. “It was almost 20 years ago when I played there for the first time, at the old Juanita’s, to a not-very-big crowd, as CCR opened for The Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash. It was still a cool experience.
“I’m planning to do an acoustic solo project in November,” Canada says from his home some 40 miles south of Austin, Texas, “and then after that, we’ll start with new stuff for a band album.”Cody Canada & The Departed
Opener: Rob Baird
8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Revolution Room, 300 President
Clinton Ave., Little Rock
$10 advance; $12 day of
show
(501) 823-0090 or revroom.
com
Style, Pages 34 on 09/17/2013