Never Say Never

Cross Canadian Ragweed is back, and the Red Dirt Music scene has its defining moment. Nearly 15 years after taking a break nearly everybody — band included — thought to be permanent, the Oklahoma four-piece is back under the biggest spotlight in Red Dirt history.

Ragweed’s 2025 reunion at The Boys From Oklahoma concerts in Stillwater, Oklahoma, along with co-headliners The Turnpike Troubadours, The Great Divide, Jason Boland and The Stragglers, and Stoney LaRue started as a one-off event before ballooning into a four-night festival on the campus of Oklahoma State University in front of more than 180,000 fans.

Red Dirt journalist and author Josh Crutchmer takes you behind the scenes for the entire event and tell the story of the Ragweed comeback from the perspective of band members Cody Canada, Grady Cross, Randy Ragsdale and Jeremy Plato.

In addition, Crutchmer catches up with The Turnpike Troubadours, The Great Divide, Jason Boland and Stoney LaRue to share in their memories of days playing in dive bars across the Red Dirt landscape.

Finally, Crutchmer breaks down how this concert came together through interviews with the people who made it happen. Crutchmer ends his fourth book — and the follow-up to 2020’s Red Dirt and 2024’s Red Dirt Unplugged — with four chapters taking in a view from the wings of all four nights as The Boys From Oklahoma concerts unfold.

A pair of red-hot artists from the Red Dirt scene — Wyatt Flores and Kaitlin Butts, contribute the book’s foreword and last word and drive home the scale of the genre’s moment in the sun.

Never Say Never will be approximately 200 pages, including all-new photography from The Boys From Oklahoma concerts.

Finally, $5 from each book sold on this website through November 30, 3025, will be donated directly to The Okmulgee Family YMCA in Okmulgee, Oklahoma — the hometown of the author. In Josh Crutchmer’s words, “This is a homecoming concert, and I would like to share this book with the first nonprofit I was ever a part of back home.” Your purchase will have a direct impact, contributing to support, memberships, jerseys and more for youth sports as well as families in need of care.