The name is bound to turn a few heads, and with any luck the music will as well. Cross Canadian Ragweed. What kind of a band would pick a name like that, anyway?

One that plays “roots rock,” apparently. Cody Canada, singer/songwriter/guitarist for the band, says their sound stems from country and Southern rock backgrounds.

“It kind of goes all over the radar, actually,” Canada says. “Merle Haggard, Steve Earle, Bob Dylan — a lot of songwriter stuff, you know?”

Canada says knowing their influences isn’t really an important part of understanding their latest self-titled album, affectionately referred to as “The Purple Album.”

“We found our sound on the last record, so the newest one is us,” he says. “We didn’t really try to put our influences in on that record; we just tried to make it us. I think about every song on there is different from the other.”

That image portrays Canada and the rest of CCR as men who owe a lot to their upbringing, for better or for worse.

“Yukon [Okla.], where we grew up, had a pretty big effect on us, just because a lot of the authorities around there didn’t take to musicians very serious — or the school,” Canada says.

Canada also doesn’t speak highly of one of Yukon’s other famous exports, Garth Brooks, a man he deems responsible for the current state of country music.

“There used to be more bands in the country scene, and there used to be a lot more people who wrote their own stuff. I don’t know what happened with that,” Canada says. “We always blamed Garth Brooks for it. He was the one that spawned a million guitarless hat acts. They’re just singing stuff that doesn’t appeal to the people we want to appeal to.”

Canada says there are a few names for whom he has quite a bit of respect, even those with huge success in the mainstream. Canada counts Alan Jackson, George Strait and the famous female trio of the Dixie Chicks, with whom they recently shared a stage.

“I’m not putting us up on the same pedestal as them, but they’re just as honest in their music as we are. There’s no glamour, no polish — it’s just music,” he says.

CCR may be borrowing fans from a few other groups down the line, including one semi-surprising band. “I think it’s on the table for us to do a few shows with 3 Doors Down,” Canada says.

“What the label’s trying to do — which we’re completely for — is put us on rock and country stations, because there’s a lot of our stuff that’s not country. Ninety percent of the stuff that’s ours isn’t what they consider country today.”

Canada says their label, Universal South, is completely supportive of letting CCR make their own decisions about how their music is portrayed.

“What’s really cool about our record label is they ask before they do anything,” he says. “They even asked if they could put us on [Country Music Television]. We agreed, as long as they don’t portray us as trying to be a mainstream country band.”

What: Cross Canadian Ragweed, Kelly Pardekooper

Where: Maintenance Shop

When: 8 p.m. Friday

Cost: $6 students, $8 public