By Marcus Huff
Staff Writer 

Curtain Call

Wyoming's Jalan Crossland Band bids farewell tonight

 

September 22, 2017

COURTESY/Jalan Crossland

Founded in 2005, Wyoming's Jalan Crossland Band, featuring (l-r) Jalan Crossland, Pat Madsen and Shaun Kelley, will play their final show tonight in Lander.

TEN SLEEP – "Well, like they say, all good things must pass," drawled Jalan Crossland, from his home in Ten Sleep on Thursday.

By this time tomorrow, his band, a beloved staple on the Wyoming music scene, will be no more, and Crossland will reemerge as a solo act, aligned with his early roots as a travelling musician.

"I guess I'll be heading back to the basics," said Crossland. "A harmonica, guitar and one guy stomping his foot. I can probably expect to put together another band, eventually, but I think I'll just work on my own for a bit."


After 12 years of touring and making albums, the Jalan Crossland band will hold one final show, tonight at 6 p.m. at the Lander Community Center in Lander. The show is free to all ages, and will feature opening act Low Water String Band, of Lander.


From the stage, the band's audience and dedicated fans have been heralded with rollicking, break-neck tales ranging from the rigors and terror of smuggling corn liquor (and the occasional controlled substance), to lost love, hard work, and regret. To pin any one label on the band's body of work would be a crime. It's not country. It's not rock. It sure isn't your daddy's bluegrass.


"Man, we've been booted out of bluegrass festivals because we have a drummer. Full, hour-long negotiations just to get us on the stage," laughed Crossland, during a recent interview.

After over years of touring, thousands of live shows, 122 songs, seven albums, a National Fingerpick Champion designation, and the 2012 Wyoming Governor's Arts Award, the band is coming to an end, with the east coast relocation of drummer Pat Madsen, and the 2016 diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease for long-time collaborator and bassist Shaun Hatcher Kelley.

Having been a professional bass player for over 40 years, Kelley is quick to recognize the chemistry that made his musical and personal relationship with Crossland work, all these years.

"The following and the fans have been a major source of energy, and you know, with most bands they come out of the gate with all kinds of big plans and just kind of burn out," noted Kelley. "Working with a songwriter as productive as Jalan always kept things fresh. It's been a real highlight."

With his bandmates taking off for new chapters in their lives, Crossland will be headed down south to avoid Wyoming's harsh winter.

"I'm finally getting tired of the cold," noted Crossland, a long-time resident of Ten Sleep. "I'm just going to live in my van down in the canyons and desert [in Arizona] and work on some new songs. I've got binders full of unfinished stuff."

Looking forward to the solidarity, Crossland still cherishes the legacy of his band, and the friends they've made along the way.

"Wyoming is like living in a big old house with a bunch of people. You never see them all, but you bump into them in the kitchen now and then," mused Crossland. "We sure would like to thank folks for coming out and having a fun and dancing all these years."

 
 

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