Cross Canadian Ragweed were one of the most influential and popular bands to come out of the Texas Red Dirt music scene, releasing seven critically acclaimed albums before breaking up in 2010. Band members Cody Canada and Jeremy Plato then teamed up with Dave Bowen, Seth James, and Steve Littleton to form a new band called Cody Canada and the Departed. As Canada and James explained in a new interview, the group is currently working on a new album of fresh material.

Canada tells radio station KNUE that unlike the Departed’s first album, ‘This Is Indian Land’ — which was a tribute record — the next album will be all original songs. “All of us writing, there’s a lot Seth and I have written together. Seth wrote one with Wade Bowen and one with Sean McConell. Everybody’s got a song on this record,” Canada dishes.

He adds that the band members are all happy to be working together, something that was missing in Cross Canadian Ragweed at the end. “Everybody’s really excited you know, it’s still new, everybody’s in love with each other. [We] sit around in the back and bounce ideas off each other.”

The forthcoming album features a mix of songs sung by Canada and James. Canada says he’d actually prefer a James-sung track titled ‘Burden’ for the single, but James is not yet convinced, saying, “I’d have to hear all the songs mixed and finished, and in the can, and then make up my mind.”

Whatever the final decision on the single, Canada says they expect to release the next Departed album in the fall, or more assuredly, “definitely before the year is over.”

Listen to the entire interview here.

 

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