Music Premiere: Cody Canada and The Departed – “If You Want It That Much”

It’s still early, but 2022 has already landed some whoppers on the music news front. We’ve got a Turnpike reunion tour that’s generating two kinds of frenzy…those that can get tickets and those that can’t. The Robert Earl Keen farewell tour that we just learned about will undoubtedly do the same. Whether or not you’re one of the lucky to snag a ticket to one or both shows, you’re going to be part of the fun. We at Galleywinter remain hopeful that this two-year time warp is finally untangling itself and the party will pick back up like it’s 2019.

The good times and reminiscing are going to be thick, and Cody Canada and The Departed are showing up to the party with some nostalgia of their own. This spring Canada and company will release the first re-recordings out of the Cross Canadian Ragweed catalog in order to regain ownership of the music (a la Taylor Swift, Def Leppard, etc.) 2004’s Soul Gravy is batting lead-off, with Mike McClure producing and Canada enlisting help from their School of Rock clan to inject some new blood into some classic Ragweed tunes.

We’ll have more on Soul Gravy soon, but today Cody Canada and The Departed are reaching into that nostalgia jar in a different way by putting out a cover of “If You Want It That Much,” a song written by Gary Thomason and Scott Melott, who played in Susan Gibson’s former outfit, The Groobees.

Cody told us a brief story about his history with the song…

“About 22 years ago, we toured with The Groobees and The Great Divide on a Texas-Oklahoma run and I heard that song and said, ‘Man I’m gonna have to cut that someday.’ But we got so busy, started writing songs. and time got away… then The Great Divide cut it. We were always sharing songs with them, so that really wasn’t abnormal.

Then Randy Rogers brought it up one day and I said, ‘I didn’t know you knew that song.’

He told me, ‘Well I was going to record it, but my dad is a preacher and he might not appreciate me singing about cocaine.’ “

Canada concluded, “That was really the green light for me. I’ve been playing for years, even with Ragweed.” <laughs>

The Departed got to stretch their legs in the Canada’s new recording studio with this one. Enjoy and stay tuned, we’re going to hear a lot from Cody Canada and fam in 2022.