For The Record

Cody Canada on making real Southern rock, Latin wordplay and giving up radio

A veteran of the Red Dirt music scene, Texas-born Cody Canada has been doing hispart to bring Oklahoma’s fiery brand of southern rock to Texas audiences foryears.
Photo by Michael Bauer
The Departed, from left: Chris Doege, Seth James, Cody Canada, Steve Littletonand Jeremy Plato.
Photo courtesy of T. Cannon Media
Cody Canada/Facebook
Photo courtesy of Cody Canada and The Departed

Cody Canada makes rock music. If you want to get specific, he makes good, honest, warts-and-all Southern rock, with a little bit of Texas country sprinkled throughout. That’s what he’s good at and that’s what he’s been doing in various ways for the last 20 years.

A veteran of the Red Dirt music scene, Texas-born Canada has been doing his part to bring Oklahoma’s fiery brand of southern rock to Texas audiences for years. Equal parts Neil Young and Waylon Jennings, Canada often weaves tales of rebellion and romance into a form of song that would sit comfortably among a wide range of American rock music in your record collection.

Most of Canada’s career has been spent fronting Cross Canadian Ragweed, a group that’s still revered in nearly every Texahoma college town. But the last two years have seen him dedicating time and talent to The Departed, a project fueled by a diverse group of musicians devoted to taking fans to various ends of rock music’s spectrum.

Equal parts Neil Young and Waylon Jennings, Canada weaves tales of rebellion and romance into a form of song that would sit comfortably among a range of American rock music.

Canada recently spoke with CultureMap about the recording of Adventus, The Departed’s latest album, new stuff he’s been listening to and Latin wordplay. And, like any rabid music fan, he couldn’t resist sharing a little bit with us about a few recent grabs from the used-record bins of Dublin, either.

CultureMap: We love the wordplay surrounding the title of your newly released album, Adventus. Tell us a little bit about what that means in the context of your career.

CC: The name was my wife’s idea, who is also my manager. One day she said, “I think you need to call the record The Arrival, since it’s The Departed’s first album full of originals.

Our first album together, This is Indian Land, was a chance for me to keep up a promise I’d made to all these Red Dirt musicians a while back. I promised that one day I’d record an album full of their songs. I had my hands tied with my old label or else I’d have done it with Cross Canadian Ragweed, but now I have 100 percent creative control.

So, Adventus is an “arrival” because it’s our first record full of originals together. But I didn’t like the way The Arrival sounded, so I looked at several different languages and ways of saying that. Latin was the one that really struck a nerve with me, so we went with that.

Led Zeppelin actually wanted to use the picture on the album’s cover back in ’68, but their management said “no way.” I’d like to think that the world has grown up a little bit since then. It works great for our album. The music’s like a shot to the ear.

CM: I read a recent review that describes Adventus as “more Red Hot Chili Peppers than Red Dirt.” I’m sure you’d take that endorsement gladly, but your music has its own personality. Are you going for a specific sound when you record?

CC: Hey, I’ll take a Red Hot Chili Peppers comparison any day of the week!

Though, when recording a record, you need to clear your mind and not think about the sound; just let it happen. With Adventus, it’s like this: Here are five guys from four different bands. Let’s see what happens when we record.

“When recording a record, you need to clear your mind and not think about the sound,” Canada says. “Just let it happen.”

We did it all the Grateful Dead way, hit things over and over until it sounded perfect. Once we had that down, we re-recorded the song all over again. Sort of deconstructed it until it was unrecognizable, but the end result was an even better version of the song.

We’re all very different people with the common goal of making a kick-ass record. And with that being said, I’m still writing more and more.

CM: Each of you has such a different personality. What is your approach when you play with such a diverse group of guys?

CC: It was all perfect harmony when we made Adventus. I wouldn’t be playing with these guys if it wasn’t fun. We all agree on what’s going on the record.

There was only one song on the record that everyone liked but me, and it was one of mine. I had one little line that was eating at me, but everyone wanted me to keep it.

So, in that situation, we’d have a saying. A little joke in the studio. We’d say, “The band sucks. Let’s fight!” which would keep reminding us that we can always wait on the next album to put out a song that’s not quite perfect yet.

We’ve got enough tunes on this one to play, and we don’t ever want to be stuck playing songs that we aren’t 100 percent in love with.

CM: One of the joys of listening to you play is how much you love your influences. Neil Young easily comes to mind, and there are several others as well. Was there an “aha moment” for you when music just made sense?

CC: There’s been several. When I was 5, my dad took me to see George Strait. Then I hit about 13, I heard other music. Willie and Merle changed it for me as a songwriter, and then Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots happened.

“I actually gave up my radio years ago,” Canada says. “There’s just not that much going on there these days.”

It was all so liberating and rebellious. I still had that songwriter aspect, but I still saw what rock and roll could do. The older I got, the more I started intertwining songwriting and rock and roll. I keep telling myself to make the music good, but make the lyrics good too. So I try to blend both as best I can.

CM: What music are you listening to right now that your fans would do well to check out?

CC: I’ve been real guilty for listening to the same bands over and over again. I’ll often wait for the guys I’ve always relied on to put out new stuff, but I’ll find a gem or two every once in a while. The latest one was Glen Hansard of The Frames after hearing him open up for Eddie Vedder in Austin.

This may surprise you, but I think Sheryl Crow is a fantastic songwriter. Also, I don’t know if you’ve heard of Adam Hood or not, but he’s made quite a name for himself in Dallas and around Austin.

Jason Eady’s another one. Those guys are all the the real article. You won’t find their stuff on the radio, I don’t think. I actually gave up my radio years ago. There’s just not that much going on there these days.

CM: You’re a record collector. Can you tell us about your best find?

CC: I was in Dublin last year, around November, and there was a record store on the main drag in the Temple Bar District that had a sign that read, “Thanks for twenty great years. Going out of business.”

I went in there and found a live Pearl Jam bootleg from Zurich, 1992, on pink vinyl. A 6 Euro find! I would have had to pay over 50 bucks for that on eBay. I was ecstatic. I’ve also found a couple of Robert Earl Keen records at some pawn shop for two dollars a piece. [Laughs] Of course I could have just asked Robert for those records myself, but it’s so much more fun to find them when you’re not expecting to.

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Movie Review

Much-anticipated film sequel Gladiator II tells a very familiar story

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Paul Mescal in Gladiator II.

There are some films for which making a sequel is natural, and others where a follow-up is wholly unnecessary. Gladiator, which made both tons of money and was named Best Picture at the Oscars, told an impactful stand-alone story that ended with the protagonist dead and no real loose ends. And yet because there’s always more money to be made, here we are 24 years later with Gladiator II.

The lead character this time around is Lucius (Paul Mescal), a general in a North African army who becomes a prisoner of war when the Roman army led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) bests him and his troops in battle. Taken back to Rome, he is put in the pool of captured men forced to fight at the Colosseum for the amusement of twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracella (Fred Hechinger).

Lucius is controlled by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), an ambitious schemer who bets liberally on his prized fighter and always has an eye to move up in the world. Meanwhile, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the sister of Emperor Commodus from the first film, is now married to Marcus Acacius and has a unique connection with Lucius that is fairly obvious from the get-go.

Directed once again by Ridley Scott and written by David Scarpa, the film commits a number of sins throughout its 150-minute running time, the most blatant of which is that, aside from a few embellishments, it essentially tells the same story as the first film. Lucius, like Maximus, is a deposed military leader who’s out for revenge on the person who killed his family. Instead of one obnoxious emperor, there are now two. And the only way for Lucius to earn his freedom is to fight his way out.

Stories told in the same world can echo each other and, if done well, overcome those similarities. But Gladiator II is shockingly boring for a purported sword-and-sandals epic. Scott and his team try to introduce new elements to the fights, like a gladiator riding a rhinoceros or a ship battle inside the Colosseum (with sharks!), but most of the sequences are inert with no propulsion to them.

The action fails because none of the relationships in the film amount to much. There are stand-out characters like Macrinus and the twin emperors, but instead of creating antipathy or strong feelings of triumph or defeat, the story just kind of happens without any sense of excitement or importance. Much of that issue lies at the feet of Lucius, who simply doesn’t inspire in the same way that Russell Crowe’s Maximus did.

Mescal is a fine actor who’s done good work in more intimate roles, but he’s not up to the task of being an action star, at least not in this film. Any bombast he shows with the character feels forced, and the story doesn’t give him enough opportunities to counteract that lack. Washington, however, fills up the screen with his charisma, and it’s during his scenes that the film comes closest to being rousing. Quinn and Hechinger are a lot of fun as the twin emperors, but in the end they feel like retreads of Joaquin Phoenix from the original.

Any sequel should have a purpose that sets it apart from what came before, but Scott, Scarpa, and the rest of their team fail in that respect in Gladiator II. It’s a mostly lifeless film that delivers scenes that would be exciting if they had any kind of good story to back them up.

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Gladiator II opens in theaters on November 22.

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