Dave Crossland was hailed as “among the most promising voices in the Boston folk scene” by the Boston Globe when he first arrived on the Boston music scene. He had begun 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. His career took a dramatic turn as he dealt with his mother’s battle with cancer. After her death he took some time off and immersed himself in his day job to regain his musical footing.

His latest release Pearl, reflects his new found voice and maturity. 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. Daniel Gewertz in the Cambridge Chronicle describes Crossland’s voice as “graceful and liquid” and goes on to say that “his phrasing is impeccable.”

Hailing from the small New England town of Boston, Massachusetts, Jim’s Big Ego has carved a unique place in the music world by rocking harder, fresher, louder, sweeter and better than everyone else. Jim’s Big Ego’s secret to awesomeness is singer, songwriter, and all around super-genius, Jim Infantino. Armed with the innate ability to create songs that are more brilliant than all others in history, Infantino gives the band the gift of greatness. Jim’s Big Ego compares itself to such major players as The Great Wall of China, The Grand Canyon, Antarctica, and other things you can see from space.

While the debate still rages over whether the band’s formation was a matter of divine providence or historical inevitability, one fact remains clear: if the world ended today, Jim’s Big Ego would die happy knowing that they were more talented than Oasis, more popular than Terence Trent D’Arby and richer than MC Hammer.

Photo by Liz Linder

 

 

  

Called “Pearl,” the album is easily the finest of Crossland’s career. A sinuous, sophisticated work, it instantly seduces on a pure sound level. . . . Crossland's voice is graceful and liquid, and his phrasing is impeccable. Unlike almost any other contemporary folk talent from New England, Crossland is a singer with true pop gifts. Daniel Gewertz, The Cambridge Chronicle

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While the star of the show is definitely Infantino's absurd, often poignant songwriting, the musical arrangements are what make the words soar. The melodies ultimately deposit the lyrics on your tongue, and can cause embarrassing outbreaks of spontaneous public singing.Ara Finlayso, Seven Days, Burlington, VT