Cody Canada's "Lonely Girl" Tops Texas Country Music Charts

SAN ANGELO, TX — This week, Cody Canada and the Departed scored the top spot on the CDX Traction Texas Country Music chart with a re-recorded version of the Cross Canadian Ragweed hit song “Lonely Girl.” Canada had been reluctant to even perform old Ragweed songs because of legal prohibitions. The final Ragweed record was released in 2009.

“Lonely Girl” is on last year’s record by Canada's new band, titled Soul Gravy 2022. It is a remake of the original Soul Gravy record released in 2004. According to Canada, when the original record was recorded, he thought the band was rushed. For the 2022 record, it was much better.

“We were so busy on tour back then,” Canada told Radio Texas Live of the circumstances of the original recordings.

“I got to go in my own studio, on my own time, with 25 different amplifiers, four different bass rigs, vintage drum kits, and time,” he said. “I got to re-do these songs like I feel they should be done.”

The songs on the new 2022 record were majority Canada original compositions. In addition to "Lonely Girl”, the hit Ragweed version of “Alabama” (it’s not even close to the Lynyrd Skynyrd version), “Number”, and “Sick and Tired” along with 11 more Ragweed songs were re-recorded.

Here is a 14-year-old video of Ragweed performing “Lonely Girl.”

Last year, Canada gave Nashville the middle finger choosing to re-record his own music. Canada said after Ragweed split up in 2010, he called Universal Recording and attempted to reclaim his old songs. The record company said those songs were no longer Canada’s. Then, after Taylor Swift re-recorded her early hits she no longer owned and got away with it, Canada decided to do the same thing. The precedent had been set by Swift. He said some Nashville record executives encouraged him to “go for it.”

Canada has performed in San Angelo at least twice in the past year. He was part of the lineup of July’s Wild West Fest and he performed to a sold-out crowd at City Limits in November. We interviewed Canada on the LIVE! Daily TV News Show back in November 2022.

Here are the top five Texas Country Music songs for the week of January 20, 2023:

#1 "Lonely Girl" - Cody Canada and the Departed