No pretense.

For me, that is the highest praise I can offer the newest, self titled, release by Cross Canadian Ragweed.

Sure, I could get into a discussion of the Texas Country/Red Dirt Country movement. How country radio ignores artists like Cross Canadian Ragweed, how Nashville is all hat and no cattle, ad nauseum.

But, at this point in my life I don't have the time, energy or patience to deal with complicated music or issues. Spending all day spinning the lastest Radiohead, listening for the nuances, tracking down sources for the guitar riff on track 5 or the tinkling triangle on track 9. I leave that for the college kids.

I am interested in stories, and guitars, and gut level emotions expressed in an interesting way.

(Side note: in the song "Don't Need You," I can hear what I think is a definite Hoodoo Guru's, and ilk, type influence, and "Brooklyn Kid," name checks so many bands and songs you need a chart to keep track.)

(Side Note II: "Walls of Huntsville" courts the soon to be ghost of Johnny Cash and continues a long line of smartly written cheatin' songs in country music. But, like Cash, there are consequences to actions and while the song is upbeat musically, the lyrics are anything but. I am not even sure the narrator is all that sorry.)

Gut level emotions like this verse from "17:"

Her porch swing still looks the same
She probably won't even remember my name
Just like she didn't back then
Is she married, is she doin' fine
Does she know about all the nights
I laid awake cryin'
Just to know her hand
The door opens and I run away
Just like the same old clown
You're always seventeen in your hometown

It is hard to convey aching, but Cody Canada's voice biting like the Oklahoma winter wind, makes me remember the aching for the girl in high school I could never have, 11 years, a marriage and 2 kids later. (But, like Garth, I thank God for Unanswered Prayers.)

The album is solid all the way through. Cross Canadian Ragweed, like most alt. country/crossroads/Texas Music/Red Dirt Country bands avoids the standard country music filler that makes up most of new country releases. You even get a couple of "gospel" songs, from a hopeful/wistful narrator ("On A Cloud") and a confused/grappling with faith narrator ("Carry You Home").