Ragweed in Waco: History In the Making

There are shows you circle on a calendar. There are shows you stumble into on a whim. Then there are shows you move heaven and earth to be at. Saturday night in Waco is one of those heaven and earth type shows. Just like April in Stillwater. Not being there wasn’t an option.

I’ve seen Cross Canadian Ragweed in every kind of setting over the years. Beer soaked dives, parking lot festivals, LJT teepees, even arenas. And yes, Boone Pickens Stadium. But the thought of walking into Baylor’s backyard to see them? That’s something I never thought I’d live to witness.

Let’s get one thing out of the way. Yes, Baylor is selling booze. At a Ragweed show. On campus. That sentence alone feels like a glitch in the matrix.

As a Waco native and living in the center of this music scene since the late 90s, I’ve seen some things. Pat Green buying rounds at George’s the same week Baylor finally allowed dancing on campus. Willie Nelson at the county courthouse supporting Billy Joe Shaver in his attempted murder trial. Random shows where acts like Jack Ingram and Charlie Robison performed on the back of a flatbed trailer at Lakeside Tavern. Watching a baby faced Josh Grider cut his teeth at the Continental Cowboy and Melody Ranch. Booking Randy Rogers and Kevin Fowler into DJs in Elm Mott. Seeing George Strait and Reba at the Ferrell Center. So many other ones to mention that range from Kiss to Snoop Dogg.

It’s been a wild ride. Defending Waco as a loyalist, but knowing it’s flawed. Especially when it comes to Texas Music and culture.

Baylor is a big player in all that happens around here.

The same Baylor that used to clutch its pearls at the very mention of this music scene. Around 2003, Willie Nelson played MargaritaFest in downtown Waco with Pat Green and a young Ragweed and Wade Bowen. Memory serves that there were green and gold clad protesters out front praying for the heathens inside via bullhorns.

Now, Waco and Baylor have teamed up to host the godfathers of Red Dirt and they’ve agreed to serve the requisite cold ones to go with it. Baylor once lost out on a George Strait tour stop because he was sponsored by Bud Light at the time and they couldn’t abide. Wouldn’t even allow the signage. How far it’s all come. The music. The town. The culture. The vibe.

Cross Canadian Ragweed is part of the reason we’ve all come so far.

If you had told me about this upcoming weekend in 2002, I’d have asked what you were smoking. And assumed it was something rolled incorrectly from someone north of the Red.

That’s what makes Saturday so special. It isn’t just a reunion show. It’s a statement about how far this music has come and how large of an impact this music, and Ragweed in particular, have had on everyone.

All week the momentum has been building. You can see the threads connecting everything we’ve been writing about:

• Shelby Stone with the kind of unbridled, genre-less drive that reminds you of Ragweed’s earliest days.

• Smoking Oaks and Waves in April, restless and urgent, proof the fire has spread via genetics and attitude.

• Wade Bowen, the glue, the hometown hero, the steady hand behind it all.

• American Aquarium, Carolina wordsmith BJ Barham and his band of aces who’ve woven Ragweed’s DNA into their own story.

• Shane Smith and The Saints, Harmony and fire for days, turning sparks inspired by Ragweed into cinematic wildfires with every chorus.

• Turnpike Troubadours, the heirs apparent, flying the Oklahoma flag higher than anyone since Ragweed themselves.

Saturday isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s the culmination of everything this scene has been building toward for 25 years. This weekend features the past, present and future colliding altogether.

My favorite song of all time is Walt Wilkins “Trains I Missed”. In it, he sings:

Here's to this place I've found

The love I've known

The earth and the sky

That I call home

Here's to the things I need

Bigger than me

And the moments I find myself right where I'm suppose to be

It's a big old world but I've found my way

And the hell and the hurt lead me straight to this

Here's to the trains I missed

Feels like nearly 30 years of being involved in this music scene led me straight to this. And about 40,000 other folks too.

When the lights drop and Cody Canada leans into that mic, it won’t just be another setlist or show. It’ll be a declaration. That the music that started at the Farm and Yellow House now belongs to the world…even a football stadium at Baylor University.

I can already feel it. The roar when the first chord rings out, the knowing nods and singalongs between strangers, the goosebumps that’ll ripple through the crowd. I saw and participated in one in Stillwater last spring, but nights like this don’t come around very often. If ever.

Saturday isn’t just a concert. It’s history waiting to be written. And we get to be there when it happens.

The overwhelming feeling from the April shows was joy. I have a feeling this one will be triumphant. Literal decades of blood, sweat and tears have led us to this moment. It will all be on display this weekend. See you at the shows.

What if I decided to take the nation

I'd break the knob just so I could feel the frustration

Yeah, turn it up til you hit top speed

Yeah, its all that I'll ever need

When you bear your heart

You better be prepared to bleed

“Sister” - Cross Canadian Ragweed