Review of "SPLIT & MOSEY" by Casey Hayman
from Local Buzz

Play Joshua Crane's Split & Mosey for an unsuspecting friend and they might swear up and down that they were listening to Tom Waits. Crane's plaintive growl and his singer-as-storyteller delivery all at times bear uncanny resemblances to Waits. That's not a bad thing, but sounding similar to such a distinctive established artist invites the inevitable comparison from rock critics.

But Crane is a unique and engaging songwriter in his own right. His stripped-down style is arresting, allowing his voice, quivering with heartfelt emotion a la Conor Oberst, to carry the tracks. Despite the fact that Crane's voice sounds as though it were the product of decades of saturation in alcohol and cigarette smoke, the songwriter is only in his early twenties. But like his voice, his lyrical content belies his age. On Split & Mosey, Crane shows a knack for delivering lines as haunting as the arrangements: "Everyone should know/That there's some dirt in which nothing will ever grow" (from the song "Crown").

Listening to the way he molds profound meditations from of the everyday, Crane seems like one of those songwriters who sings with a tangible sense of purpose, as though it's what he's destined to do.

..........

"Split & Mosey" was released on December 18, 2007.