March 2018
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The Sweet Potatos Kelly Macleod, Laura Hall and Rick Hall, might not be household names, but I bet you know some of their work. Kelly (vocals, guitar) was discovered by Eddie Van Halen and spent some time opening for his band for a season with her band, Private Life. If you ever watched Whose Line Is It Anyway, you’ve seen or heard Laura (vocals, guitar, accordion, ukulele) as she was the pianist for the show. And Rick (vocals, bass, harmonica) has multiple television and film acting credits that include NCIS and Disney’s K.C. Undercover. Together, the trio makes up the Folk/ Americana act known as The Sweet Potatos. The band has been together now for seven years, recording three CDs in the process. “It’s rather stunning, actually, when you think about it,” Laura commented. Kelly and Rick did a movie together, an independent film shot at Rick’s farm in Illinois. “When we got finished with the film,” Rick recalled, “I said to Laura, you guys need to work together.” The ladies started writing together shortly after that, and the next thing they knew they had enough songs for a CD. “So I get the credit for bringing the girls together,” he quipped. “And then we let him in the band,” Laura added. The music is not in the style of Van Halen, obviously. However it is full of polish and soul, centered around delightful songwriting. “I was a rocker,” Kelly said. “I still am a rocker, but my influences are all over the map, and Laura and I had similar musical roots. It just clicked.” “Americana, the kind of stuff we write, is really lyric driven and story driven anyway,” Laura said. “Both of us are definitely drawn to that.” Headin’ Home is their latest CD, featuring more of those insightful lyrics and polished harmonies. It’s colored with sounds of Americana, bluegrass, country, folk and, “a tinge of gospel that will have you stompin’ your boot and singing along your journey.”
Jalan Crossland
The Mosleys
Jalan Crossland makes his home in Wyoming. Michael Segell of the New York Times once commented that Jalan’s song, “Big Horn Mountain Blues” was so popular that it was practically the official state song. That’s a pretty juicy compliment for any artist.
The husband and wife songwriting team of Rachel and Stephen Mosley had a s o m e w h a t accidental start to their career after winning an open mic competition at Zac Brown’s Southern Grounds restaurant in Senoia, Georgia. The grand prize: studio time. Not wanting to squander the opportunity, they got to work carefully writing a few more songs before they recorded their first EP at Zac Brown’s Crow’s Nest Studio in Atlanta.
We caught up with Jalan as he was spending a few months off the touring trail by camping in the Arizona desert. “It is too cold for my clothes in Wyoming,” he quipped. Already sounds like a line from a song to me. “I’m just hanging out in the desert and hopefully getting the chance to write some new songs while I soak up some sunshine.” Jalan calls Wyoming home, where he’s released seven albums, primarily of his own songs. His uncle (Dan) is a fiddler and old time banjo player. “I grew up listening to the banjo since I was born,” he said. “I’m told I would crawl across the floor to the open banjo case and tug on the strings.” He was about 13 when he finally started playing music seriously. “I realized I had to learn to play music to get invited to parties and meet girls,” he mused. “So I worked at it harder.” He’s been doing it for a living now since about age 17. “Between doing opening slots for people and also being on festival bills, you get to meet a lot of other artists,” he said. The years and connections have paid off. He’s been called an “endemic W y o m i n g treasure” by Rita Basom of the Wyoming Arts Council. He’s won dozens of regional contest awards, and in 2013 he was bestowed with the Wyoming Governor’s Arts Award. His recent CD is titled, Singalongs For The Apocalypse. “I’ve had the title written down for a while,” he said. “I just liked the way it sounded. And I finally had enough songs written that leaned into that idea, so I figured it was time to record the album.” To find out more, visit www.jalancrossland.com
Originally from Florida, they spent about 10 years in Georgia before recently relocating back to Florida again. Rachel and Stephen actually met during their freshman year of high school. “We were good friends then, but never dated,” Stephen recalled. “Then sometime during college, we figured it out and got married.” Although music was a thing for them in college, it wasn’t until later in the marriage, after the five children, they figured out it still was. “When we got married we really thought that doing music together was going to be our thing,” he said. “But it just kind of never happened some how.” The Mosleys were living in a eco-community in Atlanta, in a house with a “nest-like” porch attached to it. “It just felt like music needed to be played in it,” Stephen said. “We started playing out there, playing cover tunes and such, for the fun of it, just songs we knew. Some of our neighbors heard us, and they would stand down below and clap,” Rachel recalled. “There was a party in the neighborhood, and they said, ‘you guys are doing the music.” At the friends urging, they entered an open mic night, and won. That led to the release of Beneath the Trees and Stars in 2015. They have been busy playing festivals and stages ever since. They’ve shared the stage with artists like Liz Longley, Harpeth Rising, and Air Supply, and were recently featured artists on NPR’s Folk Alley. And in June of 2017 they released their latest CD, Ordinary Time. To find out more, vivit www.themosleysmusic.com
To find out more, visit www.thesweetpotatos.com Check out
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on iTunes www.AmericanaRhythm.com