Jalan Crossland
Laramie, Wyoming, United States
Music
Press
Driftwood Souls - Jalan Crossland iTunes Store customer reviews:
"Hell of a good time" Jalan and the band are a hell of a lot of fun live! This album gives you a great taste of what Jalan and his crew are about. Fantastic version of Cumberland Gap, may be the best versionrecorded. Witty and sometimes quirky lyrics throughout the rest of the album. High and Lonsome is a song anyone who has been alone and under the influence can relate to. mama was a roughneck is catchy and fun; Too Small a Town should be the anthem for anyone who has not grown up in a city - a classic! Buy this album...then buy the rest....then go see them live and buy a Chicken Trucker Hat! Rating: 5 (by Tim in Rapid, 2010-08-05) »»
"Driftwood Souls" Jalan Crossland is the sound of the Wyoming badlands. The lyrics and music are the soundtrack to any post modern mind movie about the place. Give a listen and close your eyes, you can hear the echoes across the canyons, the whiskey glasses tinkling in the bar on a winter afternoon, and see the reflections of a thousand broken beer bottles that line the highway on a moonlit night. Great musicians, great vocals and most of all great songs. If these guys ever tour east of the Mississippi I will be there! Rating: 5 (by Jimmyrus1, 2010-06-10) »»
"Wish I lived in the Northwest" Jalan Crossland continues to get my toes tapping and my mouth grinning. A gem I found through Pandora, these guys get it done. This music is honest and direct, not quite country, not quite old time, not rock- just good solid music somewhere in between from a band I would kill to see live. My two-year-old wants to listen and dance to "Mama was a Roughneck" daily and I can't deny her because I love the song. This album is worth more than a look and the others, particularly "Moonshiner" should not be missed either. Cannot wait to hear more. Rating: 4 (by Kewalk, 2010-06-10) »» - Dealnay.com
Friday, February 26, 2010
By Ben Cannon
JACKSON HOLE, WYO––Self-styled trailer park troubadour Jalan Crossland will play at Dornan's in Moose for two nights this weekend.
Starting at 8 tonight, Crossland's trio will take the stage in what promises to be one of the memorable shows of a winter that has been packed with live music.
The Ten Sleep ("pop. 307") string picker is like a Wyoming Elvis Costello – if Costello were a virtuoso guitarist and banjo player who wrote about the rough and tumble lives in and out of bars in extremely rural America. - Planet Jackson Hole
Jalan Crossland is a writer who is well versed in the classic themes of country music. Driftwood Souls includes an outlaw song, one about a trucker, and tales of heartbreak, with and without alcoholic accompaniment. These are original tunes, but they feel like classics, and they will have you wondering who did the original. One tune is an over the top satire almost of the “drinking my heartbreak away” type of country song: Nothin’s Wasted. Here, Crossland displays a wicked sense of humor.
The band is a trio. Crossland plays electric and acoustic guitar and banjo. Shaun Kelley plays stand-up and electric bass, and contributes cello parts on one song. Andy Phreanor plays drums and percussion. Overdubs are kept to a minimum, but the band has the versatility to vary the sound quite a bit from song to song. Yet, the album also makes sense as a whole. Crossland’s voice sounds to me like Steve Goodman’s, only with more harsh weather in it. He has some of the playful wink that Goodman excelled at, but his voice catches more, letting a bit more darkness in. It works beautifully for this material.
Usually, when I feature an artist for the first time who writes songs, I feature an original. But Crossland’s version of the traditional Cumberland Gap blew me away. This is what Fairport Convention might have sounded like if they were American. The song starts with drums, bass, and banjo, joined later by overdubbed cello lines. I’ve heard other versions of the song, but this one has a haunted quality I never would have thought of. It really works. - Oliver di Place
Discography
2000: Poor Boy Shanty
2003: Moonshiner
2006: Trailer Park Fire & Other Tragedies
2010: Driftwood Souls
Photos
Bio
"There ain't much to see in a small town, but what you hear sure makes up for it" is the old adage. In Ten Sleep WY, population 307, what you'll hear - more often than not - is a clanky old banjo ricocheting off the storefronts and buttes, like a renegade .22 rifle shell. This clamor is Jalan Crossland, local trailer park troubadour. His singing voice is as dusty as the Triassic shale hillsides, spinning yarns and painting portraits of the lives and people of the rural Rocky Mountain West. "Gossip is even better when you sing it" says Jalan.
Although playing the banjo is "more fun than poking little chicken heads under the water", Crossland's primary tool of musical expression has always been the guitar. In 1997, Jalan placed 2nd at the Winfield, KS. National Fingerstyle Guitar Competition, and 1st in the state flatpicking contest of his Wyoming home. These added to dozens of regional championship awards, attest that his playing is"...so dexterous that when he stops at the end of a song, you realize you forgot to breathe"--The Weekly News, Rapid City SD.
Crossland's songs are vivid, first-hand accounts of life in the small towns and backcountry of 21st century America. Like the people they portray, the songs are tough and honest. They also reflect the tremendous heart and soul of their colorful characters. Even where the warp and weave is of hardship or heartbreak, the songs are threaded with strings of optimism and humor.
Jalan’s lyrics travel in a musical vehicle more akin to a rusty, hopped-up '66' Ford (with 3-on-the-tree) than an air-conditioned Prius. The sound glides along on the wheels of a country music clearly not to be mistaken for mainstream. Old-time and bluegrass are present, but treated to the creative freedom of rock-n-roll.
"More than just a great picker, Crossland's performances feature graceful delivery and genuine character"--Planet Jackson Hole, Jackson WY. Whether performing solo or with his band, Jalan's concerts are energetic, upbeat and fun. On stage, he is as comfortable as he would be pickin’ on his own front porch. This relaxed demeanor disarms the coolest of audiences, pulling everyone onto that porch alongside him, with their luke-warm beer and paper plates full of hot-wings.
Crossland and his band have recorded 4 CDs; 'Poorboy Shanty', 'Moonshiner', and 'Trailer Park Fire & Other Tragedies' and 'Driftwood Souls'. They perform full-time, throughout the U.S., venturing as far afield as Europe and Australia. Jalan has been the opening act on several tours with alt-country legend, Robert Earl Keen, has appeared on television, radio, and in dozens of magazines including The New York Times, No Depression, and Fingerstyle Guitar, sharing concert and festival stages with many of the biggest musical acts in the nation.
"If you're lucky enough to hear Jalan play live, observe the audience. It will be made almost entirely of drop-jawed, glassy-eyed, altogether astonished listeners." -- Panache Magazine, Black Hills SD
"I ain't great at anything, but if you are half-assed at enough things, and roll em all together, you can amount to more than one whole ass." -- J. Crossland
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