Description:

Jalan Crossland is an “endemic Wyoming treasure” (Rita Basom- Wyoming Arts Council). He is widely acclaimed by audiences, critics, and his musical peers as being a premier acoustic guitarist, as well as banjo player, singer-songwriter, and engaging showman. Along with dozens of regional contest awards, his extraordinary guitar work earned him National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship 2nd place honors in ’97 and the State Flatpick Championship title of his home state in 1999. In recognition for his contribution to the arts in Wyoming, he was bestowed with the Governor’s Arts Award in 2013.

Magazines as far-ranging as the New York Times and No Depression have run features on him, and Paste Magazine included him as being among Wyoming’s top acts. He has made numerous television and radio appearances and is portrayed in the short film “Wyomericana”, which won the Laramie Film Festival in 2014. He’s been invited as the opening act on two national tours with Texas songwriting legend Robert Earl Keen. Jalan has released 7 albums of primarily his own songs, and performs throughout the U.S. and occasionally Europe, when he takes the notion.

“To pin any one label on Crossland’s body of work would be a crime. It’s not country. It’s not rock. It sure as hell ain’t your daddy’s bluegrass! His characters and stories come alive to form an often dark, yet highly humorous interpretation of the American Experience.” (Marcus Huff- Laramie Zine) Jalan describes his sound as being grounded in traditional mountain music and country blues while treated with progressive liberty. Kanky songs about drinkin, fightin, hobos, roughnecks, trailer park fires, oil-patch strippers, and little neighborhood dogs that bite, are lent their truth-is-stranger-than-fiction wobble by virtue of the fact that Jalan was raised and resides in a rural mountain town, population >300. “He casts a sardonic but affectionate eye on the roughhewn lives of Western people. Crossland’s ‘Big Horn Mountain Blues’ is so popular in Wyoming that it is practically the official state song.” (Michael Segell- New York Times)

“Onstage, dressed in what might be called ‘cowboy carny’ (denim, buckle boots, and a bowler hat), he is a bundle of loose-limbed energy, a lovable bad boy who alternates love songs with knockdown banjo tunes about towns known for nothing more than ‘hard luck, bad blood, bullshit, and beer’.” (Michael Segell- New York Times) Jalan performs full time as a solo, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist. “More than a great picker, Crossland’s performances feature graceful delivery and genuine character.” -(Planet Jackson Hole) “If you’re lucky enough to hear Jalan play, observe the audience. It will be made almost entirely of drop-jawed, glassy-eyed, altogether astonished listenders!”-(Panache Magazine) “Jalan Crossland was killer! He played things I wish I knew how to play!”-(John McEuen, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)