Jalan Crossland

Jalan Crossland was born and raised in Ten Sleep, Wyoming.[1][2] He attended Ten Sleep High School before his family moved to Pittsburgh where he attended David B. Oliver High School.

Crossland became interested in music as a child, after hearing his uncle play the banjo. In 1997 he placed second in the Winfield National Guitar Fingerpicking Competition.[3] In 1999 he won the first place title at the Wyoming Flatpick Championship.[4]

As a teenager he played electric guitar in a series of heavy metal bands in Pittsburgh.[5] Jalan’s son, Dylan Crossland, was born in 1990 and passed away in 2015.[1] Jalan worked with country bands as a free-lance guitarist and held a day job in a mobile home factory in Casper. He quit the factory job and began pursuing music full-time.[6]

Crossland is a banjoist, guitarist, and vocalist.[7][8] He created and recorded on his own label, Boom Chicken Rekkerds. He released his first album, Poor Boy Shanty in 2000.[9] In 2004 he released his second record, Moonshiner. In 2005 he formed the Jalan Crossland Band with bassist Shaun Kelley and drummer Pat Madsen.[9] They released the albums Trailer Park Fire & Other Tragedies in 2006 and Driftwood Souls in 2010.[3] The band took a hiatus in 2011 and Crossland released a solo album titled Portrait of a Fish.[7] The band later reconvened and in 2014, released the album No Cause For Despair.[10][11] In 2017 the Jalan Crossland Band released the album Singalongs for the Apocalypse.[12] Crossland was awarded Wyoming Public Radio's people's choice award for best Wyoming release of 2017.[13][14]

In 2013 Crossland was bestowed with the Governor's Arts Award by Matt Mead for his contributions to the arts in Wyoming.[4][15] He is the second musician to ever receive the award.[16] He was also named a "Wyoming Treasure" by the Wyoming Arts Council.[17]

The Jalan Crossland Band disbanded later in 2017 after Kelley was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and Madsen moved to the East Coast.[9] The band's final performance was September 22, 2017 at the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s 50th Anniversary and Community Fair in Lander.[18][19] In March 2019 he released the album Greatest Efforts, a compilation of 19 songs throughout his career which are considered to be fan-favorites.[20] Shaun Kelley died in September 2020.