A musical polymath with perfect pitch, veteran New York-bred musician Jason Crosby built a career playing with jam titans like Robert Randolph, Zen Tricksters, God Street Wine and Susan Tedeschi. In 2013, after 24 years on the road, he switched coasts, planted roots in Marin County, Calif., and grew into a key member of the local scene dominated by Phil Lesh and Bob Weir. Cryptologic is the product of Crosby’s West Coast migration, full of dreamy folk numbers and hallucinatory country tunes. “Was I Ever There?,” with its “Truckin’”-style roadhouse groove, details the forlorn sentiments of an interstellar sailor. “When the light is right and I squint my sight/ I can almost get there,” he sings. While Crosby’s Empire State origins glimmer in the background of the record, Cryptologic is as much about the journey as it is about the destination. In “One of Those Places,” he echoes this sentiment clearly: “Those city streets they have run dry/ So I’ve gone up to see the open sky.” The whole album radiates a California sunshine warmth and it seems like Crosby is content with his new surroundings. Cryptologic is his first record in singer-songwriter mode, and he took on the mantle of writing and recording with focus and determination. Between two recording sessions, he played over a dozen instruments and collaborated with guest vocalist Elliott Peck, co-writer Tim Bluhm, as well as the rest of The Mother Hips as his backing band. In the end, Cryptologic emerged as something wholly unique: a psychotropic country record with equal parts head and heart.