 Held in beautiful Challis, Idaho in August, the Braun Brothers Reunion is three days of music featuring esteemed artists from the Texas, Americana and Red Dirt scenes. This year, the BBR will be held from August 11-13th and will feature sixteen plus artists performing on an outdoor stage in an idyllic setting. In our continuing series featuring the artists performing at this year's event, singer-songwriter (and Idaho native) Jeff Crosby took the time to speak about his Idaho roots, what makes the BBR so special and more. First off, you recently had a serious health scare [Crosby was hospitalized from an acute virus that attacked his heart]. How are you feeling? Yeah I had a weird month but I’m feeling great now and back on the road with Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons. The whole thing was so weird. I was doing these gigs in Mexico with Jerry Joseph and a few days after I got back I felt pretty sick. I went to the hospital and I came back with some virus that ended up giving me heart issues [He spent 36hours in the ICU and suffered a minor heart attack]. I really thought I was going to die because I never had anything that serious ever happen to me. It has definitely changed the narrative of the next record for sure. It’s good to hear that you’re doing better. Going back a bit, you grew up in Idaho, how did that shape you musically? I’m from Donnelly which is two hours south of Boise and the one thing I love about being from there is that my influences were very limited, so I grew up mostly hearing music from the locals playing old folk music and my parents record collection. My mom and dad were into the music of the 60’s and 70’s like Jackson Browne, Elton John, Tom Petty and all that Laurel Canyon stuff. All of that music was engrained in me and I didn’t really listen to a lot of what was contemporary at the time. As for playing music, that just naturally happened. I started playing around town when I was fifteen or sixteen and just kind of went with it. At seventeen, I played in a band with some local guys I admired who kind of took me under their wing. I hopped in a van with them to play music and it just happened, like it was meant to be.  Courtesy: KG Music Press Eventually though you left Idaho and made the move to California.
I moved to California five years ago for a change of scenery, and I was in the process of moving to Nashville, but after going through all of this health stuff, I am staying with family in Idaho for a while resting and writing and am planning on moving to Nashville in the Fall. I visited Nashville and found there was a very communal bond there that I was craving and wasn’t really getting in LA. LA has a great community as far as collaboration but I went to a couple of songwriters circles in Nashville and was totally blown away - not only by the communal aspect of it, but also by the insane talent of everyone there. I decided that I wanted to be in that scene for a little bit to check it out. Before you make that move, you will be returning to Challis to play the BBR in August. Being that there are festivals around every corner these days, what makes this one so special that is has you returning? There are a million festivals, but this one is the cream of the crop. The Brauns do such a great job of putting it together; the bands are all hand-picked and just killer. We’re always hitting up Muzzie to play and this will be our third time playing there. It’s definitely one of the coolest festivals in Idaho and one of my favorite places to play. How do you find the audience, because to me they seem to be true music lovers who are very attentive when an artist is on stage? Another thing I love about the BBR is that it’s a real listening audience, people are very song oriented. I remember when we played on a Thursday [the first day of the festival] there were already hundreds of people there who were completely attentive and hooked on every word. Afterwards, when I was doing merch, people would come up and say they loved this one song where I talked about such and such and I’m just thinking, “You heard all of that?” It’s rare that people actually hear the words. I have to give it to the Braun family because they have done a great job of creating that atmosphere there. Absolutely they do. Will you be staying the entire three days? We have another festival the day before so we’ll only be there Saturday this year. If we could though, we would be there for the whole weekend. My brother and I promise for next year’s BBR that we are taking the whole weekend off and staying all three days - even if we’re not playing. This year’s line-up is really top notch. Do you know everyone else playing and is there someone you especially want to see? I’m really looking forward to seeing Jonathan Tyler. I’m a huge fan of his. My brother sent me his record and I really like it. Of course, being from Idaho, I’m a big Reckless Kelly and Micky and the Motorcars fan too. Reckless Kelly, they still blow me away. They’re such a great band who are so connected with each other and they always impress me. Every time I see them I’m always like, “God, I don’t remember them being so good!” I echo that sentiment. Circling back to your music, last year you released a terrific album, Waking Days. Why did you choose to title the album after that song? I wrote that song while I recorded my previous album, All Nighter. For one reason or another, it didn’t make that album, but I knew it was a special song and I didn’t want it to get washed away. I was living in LA, trying to make it work and being 27, I couldn’t get off the concept of the American Dream - what mine is and what my fathers was. I kept thinking how these are waking days, where I’m coming to terms with life and figuring out where I fit in this whole history of music in our country; wondering what the hell I’m doing out here and what am I contributing to this narrative (laughing). The business is constantly changing and sometimes you just wonder what does it all really mean and what am I contributing to it. I don’t know, I think I do have something unique to contribute but it’s just keeping the faith is often a wavering thing. So Waking Days is strongly based off of that and when I started writing for this new record I went back, listened to it and realized it was just me right now. It captured my state of mind over the past couple of years so I just went with it. One of my favorite songs is “I Should Be Happy.” Is there any particular story behind that song? We just started playing that song live again. I was living in a tiny apartment around Sunset Boulevard, which was a place I always dreamed of being, but I was staying in many nights sitting inside by myself and wondering “Why am I not going out? I live right here, yet I’m sitting all alone inside?” (laughing) A big part of that too was all of my friends went to Portland, which is kind of the natural migration from Boise, and I wondered why I didn’t go there instead of moving to a place where I knew no one. So I began telling myself I should be happy because I am in a place I always dreamed of being in, and that was the basis of that song. Last year, you put out a monthly Covers Series. Are there plans to do anymore of those? With so many of our heroes passing away in the past six months, I’ve been thinking about that lately. My manager keeps writing me man we need to do some covers; I know I have a bunch recorded that I’ve been sitting on so there’s been some talk of doing maybe an album of them. I love the idea, so I am tossing around putting out an album in between the new record. You’ve had songs featured on Sons of Anarchy and toured all over the US and beyond, so what’s in store for you professionally? We’ll be playing a lot of festivals and writing for the next record. We recently announced that Waking Days will be released in the UK, which I am really excited about. At The Helm Records works with a bunch of artists that I am a fan of, like John Moreland and Austin Lucas, so I sent them my record. They wrote me back, “Wow we just listened, then we went out and had a pint, then came back, listened to it again and now we’re having coffee listening to it and we’d love to work with you.” The record will be out there in October, so I will probably go over to help promote it. Then in the Fall, I’ll relocate to Tennessee. I’m just staying busy, and trying to stay above water. Before all of that though, I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone at BBR! For more information visit Jeff Crosby's official website Find him on Facebook and Twitter Crosby will be performing at the BBR on Saturday, August 13th. For all of the information on the Braun Brothers Reunion which will be held August 11-13, 2016 including tickets, lodging, the full line-up and much more, visit their official website
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