By the time his old friend, singer-songwriter Radney Foster, got around to telling Tim DuBois about Cross Canadian Ragweed, DuBois had heard it all before. At least three other times in the previous two weeks, to be exact.

"It was just one of those weird things," laughs DuBois. "In a really short time, their name kept popping up. It started with one of Pat Green's managers. He said, 'You've got to see this band.' And a few days later, I was asking Bill Minick, the owner of Billy Bob's Texas in Ft. Worth, 'What's hot?' Because he's really got his finger on the pulse there in Texas. And he said 'Cross Canadian Ragweed.' A week later, Joe Avezzano [special teams coach for the Dallas cowboys]. who's an old friend, was visiting Nashville and he stopped by the office and said 'My kid dragged me out to see a band the other night that was really cool...' And then Radney Foster! I felt like God was tapping me on the shoulder, saying 'pay attention!'"

Of course, Cross Canadian Ragweed had no shortage of suitors when Universal South came calling. Both DuBois and his business partner, Tony Brown (whose shortlist of signings includes maverick Texas icons Steve Earle and Joe Ely) knew Ragweed was hot property. (After eight years together, the rag-tag quartet of childhood friends had expanded beyond its Stillwater, OK roots to the forefront of the "Texas music revolution," a grassroots Americana phenomenon that has seen more than one proud independent artist routinely draw crowds in the thousands and amass CD sales many major label acts only dream of.)