A dynamic vocalist with solid command over his 1949 Gibson J-45, Dave Crossland is one of the best performing songwriters under the radar today.
Crossland began playing professionally while a college student in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A local favorite, he became a frequent opener for national acts and a regular headliner at The Ark, one of the finest acoustic music clubs in America. Finishing college with an honors thesis on Woody Guthrie, he left for Boston to hit the open mikes and sharpen his craft in its larger community of burgeoning talent. There, Crossland quickly rose "from open stage habitue to headliner" with his peers, Ellis Paul, Dar Williams, Catie Curtis and a few others, to be counted "among the most promising voices in the Boston folk scene" by the Boston Globe.
While his contemporaries steadily worked on growing careers, Crossland's path held different challenges. A witness and caretaker during his mother's prolonged battle with cancer, Dave worked to balance two worlds. The effort greatly affected the direction of his songwriting as well as his life. His rocking 1999 release, Molly's Street, veered sharply from his acoustic roots, and after his mother's passing, he moved to Nashville to record the EP, Fields of Promise, under indie label Appleseed. Both works garnered critical acclaim, but, Crossland reflects, "the experiences of those times made me look at my decisions and the trajectory of my life. I had to get some perspective." Dave put down his guitar, moved back to Boston, and immersed himself in the world of the day job while he quietly found his way to his musical truth.
Crossland's new CD, Pearl, is the harvest of this journey. Recorded at Ice Station Zebra in Medford, Massachusetts, the CD is produced by Jim Infantino (mastermind of Jim's Big Ego) and engineered by Ducky Carlisle (Grammy-nominated Susan Tedeschi's Just Won't Burn). Guest appearances include Jimmy Ryan on mandolin, Steve Sadler on lap steel, Mark Hickox on bass, Mike Piehl on drums, and rising star Antje Duvekot singing backup vocals. Striking in its sophistication and substance, this freshly acoustic album is a seductive mix of imagery, nuance and grace - a unique, genre-blending body of work that reveals the polished maturity at which Crossland has arrived.
