Cross Canadian Ragweed - Friday at Copper Dragon, 700 E. Grand Ave., Carbondale; doors open at 9 p.m., show at 10 p.m.; tickets are $15; SIUC graduate Emily Riesen is opening act; to order or for more info, call 549-3348.

Major League Baseball keeps trying to find new approaches to an old game to attract younger fans. One of the best ploys is to allow players to select certain songs to be played when they walk up to the plate. The music is designed to intimidate the opponent.

The problem is that most of the tunes are old classic cuts from veteran bands like AC/DC or Metallica.

Yawn.

The Pittsburgh Pirates' slugging young catcher Ryan Doumit is different. He generates a buzz throughout the stadium when the loudspeakers blast out a quick snippet of "Alabama," a popular tune for the band Cross Canadian Ragweed.

Exciting.

Doumit is one of the thousands of fans addicted to the alternative Americana lyrics of the powerhouse band.

Ragweed is made up of seasoned veterans carrying the torch for "red dirt" music, a unique and diverse style found north of Austin and west of Nashville that merges elements of rock, country, folk and blues. The epicenter of the format is Stillwater, Okla., founded at "The Farm" in the 1980s by Bob Childers, the guru of the genre.

Ragweed was been grinding it out for the format for 13 years, playing 260 dates a year, establishing a loyal cult-like following with an enormous young fan base in the middle section of the United States. The band doesn't sell a lot of records. Its bread and butter is a nonstop touring schedule that expands its popularity one gig after another, backed by strong radio airplay in major college markets.

On the road for a little more than a year promoting the 2007 album Mission California, Ragweed brings its high-powered show to the stage Friday at Copper Dragon in Carbondale. Recent SIU graduate Emily Riesen will serve as opening act.

The four members of the band are guitarist Grady Cross, bassist Jeremy Plato, drummer Randy Ragsdale and lead singer/guitarist Cody Canada. The band was founded in Yukon, Okla., but quickly migrated to the thriving music scene in Stillwater. They created the often confusing band name by using portions of the last names of the band members.

Cross says through the years, the band has become addicted to marathon tours and long, nightly performances.

"We are all just really good friends that love playing together," Cross says. "There is nothing else we would rather do. We don't get caught up in the hype. We don't try to be commercial. We play our brand of music in as many different venues as we can."

Since forming in 1994, Ragweed released three albums from 1998 to 2001 on its own independent label. They became a staple on many regional college radio stations. They took things to a new level in 2002 with a self-titled release on major label Universal Records South, which also released "Soul Gravy" in 2004 and "Garage" in 2005. Both albums charted in the Billboard Top 10.

In 2006, the band made available a souvenir concert CD/DVD titled "Back To Tulsa: Live And Loud At Cain's Ballroom."

Earlier in the group's career, Cross said the band invited unknown bluegrass picker/singer Dierks Bentley down to Stillwater to open some shows. When Bentley signed a country record deal and embarked on a successful tour, he returned the favor and used Ragweed as his opening act, leading to a record deal for the band in Nashville.

Definitely not a country band, Ragweed takes pieces of several styles to forge an instantly identifiable sound, a head-on collision between the Rolling Stones and Merle Haggard.

"We have never sold out and altered our sound to please a record company executive," Cross says. "We didn't go to Nashville looking for a record deal. We just happened to sign with a label that is based in Nashville. We are not a country band. We get in the studio and create our own music. We stay loyal to our fans. They have allowed us to make a pretty good living and we just want to keep going for a long time."

Twice in the past, Ragweed has played at Copper Dragon as the opening act for Bentley. This time around, they are the headliners, thanks largely to the success of "Mission California," which was the first album the band was able to take time and polish without rushing off on another marathon tour.

Cross says CCR fans can expect new music from the blue collar band in 2009.

VINCE HOFFARD can be reached at 658-9095 or vlh76@midwest.net.