JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Nashvillian Jeff Crosby is a road doggin’ rare bird of an artist. Originally from Donnelly, Idaho near McCall, Crosby’s music borderlines Americana with late 60s/early 70s Laurel Canyon country and folk rock, a tinge of ‘90s grunge, and a voice that can shift from smooth to gruff throatiness. Jeff Crosby & The Refugees will perform a two-night run this Friday and Saturday at the Silver Dollar Showroom on his birthday weekend.
After dropping out of school at 17, Crosby pursued touring full-time with a band on the west coast. And for much of his twenties, he played over 250 shows a year by permanently staying on the road–night after night, show after show, from load-in until the last drink was poured.
His songs are nearly presented as pages ripped out of an intimately personal diary, detailing the rugged beauty of what it means to have loved, lost and kept on the move. There seems to be no shortage of inspiration as Crosby is one of the last few troubadours that truly lives the life he sings about. When you think about songwriters, you don’t often consider them to also be guitar rippers. You know, the Jason Isbell type of artist that can hold their own in both categories. Crosby is one of these, and he’ll be joined by pedal steel, bass and drums.
For five years, Crosby hung his hat in a little shoebox apartment off Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles before making his way to Nashville a couple of years ago for a change of environment and cheaper rent.
“It just got more expensive to live there [L.A.] and I wanted to wanted a change, a new music town,” said Crosby, who is currently working on recording a new album. “A band that I met on the road let me crash at there place in Nashville just to check things out, and I moved there soon after. East Nashville has a small town feel and I’ve been liking that.”
Amid treading the scene in L.A. and touring across the U.S. with his band (and later with Jerry Joseph), Crosby managed to travel abroad to several countries including the United Kingdom, Iceland, Mexico, Colombia and Nicaragua. All of these countries offered experiences that lent themselves to the songs in his latest record, Postcards from Magdalena.
Jeff Crosby & the Refugees, 7:30-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Silver Dollar Showroom. Free.
