Ten Sleep trailer park troubadour

By Aaron Davis for Jackson Hole Weekly (PlanetJH.com)In a blue collar, van-down-by-the-river, porch-pickin’ with John Hartford sort of way, Jalan Crossland’s down-home country style makes you wonder what’s in the water in his hometown of Ten Sleep, Wyo. His Jackson credits include founding Steam Powered Airplane more than a decade ago with Tucker Smith, and wooing crowds at the Silver Dollar Bar as a quirky solo player sporting a hobo getup akin to something you’d see in Oh, Brother Where Art Thou? Crossland would sing through an old school radio-style microphone and effortlessly place tasteful riffs in between singing verses.Since then, Crossland has released five studio discs, producing vivid, first-hand accounts of rural America through his songs. I’ve followed his career over a decade, all the while traveling the country and seeing roots musicians perform in all corners of the country. Crossland has the goods. And while one of Wyoming’s greatest exports remains an underground secret to roots music connoisseurs around the country, the word continues to spread.“I really don’t have any goals or aspirations,” Crossland said, with a laugh. “The guys in my band are very motivated and that’s a good thing. Personally, I’m really happy everyday that I get to play music for a living. If we get better venues, more money all the time, more record sales, I don’t have any problem with that. Things will take you where they take you. My goals are more along the lines of trying to write a better song, trying to be more comfortable and make better records in the studio, and try to put on better performances where I’m not drunk like George Jones.”Jalan Crossland Band also includes longtime collaborators Andy Phreaner (drums, wackadoo) and Shaun Kelley (harmony vocals, electric and upright bass). Like the foundation laid by Band of Gypsies for Jimi Hendrix, the trio format suits Crossland’s melodic, outside-the-box playing. The roles are well defined and the band has grown extremely tight over years of road miles. A self-proclaimed trailer-park troubadour striving for the best in “bottom-40 country music,” the low rent, down-on-your-luck, yet slapstick persona evoked in much of his music is a refreshing batch of honest songwriting—exactly what’s missing from mainstream country radio. Rather than singing about pick-up trucks and red, white and blue decals, you get portraits of real Wyoming characters (“Mama Was a Roughneck”), quirky love affairs and made up words (“Hoboerotica”), ironic takes on culture troughs (“Methamphetamine Saturday Night in the Country with You”), and comical heartbreak (“Nothin’s Wasted”).After turning 40 years old, Crossland was told by a friend, “if you’re gonna make it, you’d better do it quick.” His philosophy was shared via his website “nooseletter.”“Don’t get me wrong, I have no objection to having a big hit single and getting to ride in an 80-foot tour bus with a wet bar and a spa and a built-in cabinet for sex toys and being able to light farts with $100 bills,” he wrote. “I harbor no grudge against gettin’ famous and havin’ my nicotine-stained grin plastered so big on the sides of city buses in Vegas that tourists could go spelunking in my pores. And, incidentally, I’d like to do Sarah Palin. What I do take issue with is sacrificing personal and artistic integrity in pursuit of it.”Jalan Crossland Band, 10 p.m., Thursday, Knotty Pine in Victor ($10), and 10 p.m., Friday, Town Square Tavern ($10).