CD review: 'Mission California'

Title: "Mission California"

Artist: Cross Canadian Ragweed

Publisher: Universal South

How much: $13.98

Rating: *** 1/2

In a nutshell: What really stands out here is the songwriting. Cody Canada, who has always written about real-life people and places, takes his lyrics to the next step by opening himself up like never before. Many of those deeply personal songs are played with an acoustic guitar and a more laid-back tempo, but the impact hits just as hard as any of Ragweed's previous work.