Jeff Crosby Band to play The Hive

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

Hailing from a small mountain town outside of McCall, Jeff Crosby is no stranger to Idaho living. For the first time in almost a decade, The Jeff Crosby Band will return to Sandpoint to play a free show Friday, Aug. 18 at The Hive, starting at 8 p.m., with doors opening at 7 p.m.

Crosby has played shows in North Idaho throughout his career, with either solo projects or various band arrangements bringing him to the panhandle many times over the years.

“I love Sandpoint,” Crosby told the Reader. “We used to play there so much with Shook Twins and so many others. We have a lot of history there and I’m really looking forward to getting back to town.”

The Jeff Crosby Band will play The Hive Friday, Aug. 18. Photo by Bobby Dodd photography.

Crosby’s current band features a few new faces and some old, with Matt Fabbi playing bass for the past six years and the addition of Jack Dejongh on guitar and lap steel as well as Wade Ronsii on drums.

“They’re all Idaho boys, too,” he said. “I’ve played with a lot of guys from other places, but it’s cool to have an all-Idaho lineup right now. It just makes sense.”

Crosby’s sound can best be described as a hybrid that lives somewhere between alt-country, singer-songwriter and rock, with elements of each thrown into a comforting, pleasant arrangement of songs based on solid rhythms and lyrical explorations that live beneath the surface. 

The genre “Americana” often gets bandied about; but, in Crosby’s case, the term describes his thoughtful output to a T. His songs are simultaneously intimate and universal, as if their verses had been ripped from the pages of a journal that everyone has read. His expansive themes explore love, loss and keeping on the move.

“We’ve always explored that line between genres, and we do a lot of country festivals, but we’re more rock ‘n’ roll leaning,” Crosby said. “We lean into more Rolling Stones than Graham Parsons, I’d say.”

Crosby spent time living and working in Nashville before moving back to the West and subsequently landing in Austin, Texas, where he currently resides. 

“That’s where all my shit is, at least,” he said. “I haven’t been there in a couple months.”

Embodying the troubadour lifestyle, Crosby’s music is a refreshing, honest portrayal of his life in motion all these years, chasing after the next good show and album.

Speaking of the next album, Crosby said he’s excited about his forthcoming studio release, scheduled to drop in October.

“We just recorded a record with Dave Schools, the Widespread Panic bass player,” Crosby said. “Schools produced it and recorded it at his studio down in Sonoma County on this old apple orchard.”

Crosby’s seventh full-length album will be titled Another Petal Falls off the Rose. With talent like Schools as producer, Crosby said he is excited to share the finished product with fans.

“Our last album Waitin’ on a Miracle was a little more country leaning,” he said. “This new one with Dave is going to be a pretty unique record. We’re already playing three or four songs from it on tour now.”

Crosby said working with the renowned producer was a unique, humbling experience.

“I’ve never had someone quite that hands on,” he said. “Literally every idea I had, he just ripped my songs apart and said, ‘No.’ It was super frustrating, but damn, the end product came out really cool.”