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In his regular gig, Justin Cron, who is getting his degree in computer systems at Marshall University, works as a computer tech for Neighborhood Networks at the J.W. Scott Community Center.

When Cron goes home, he still plays on the computer.

No, he really plays on the computer.

Born in San Diego and raised in Missouri, the Huntington resident has mixed his passion for music and his technical savvy to become one of the biggest Tri-State-based musical stars of YouTube.

Cron's silky smooth saxophone sings on a dizzying array of 32 different pop, rock and rap songs that have garnered the 23-year-old's homemade music videos more than 500,000 views on YouTube, and counting.

Currently, Cron, who plays each Sunday in the Christ Temple Church horn section, is racking up more than 10,000 views a day.

His YouTube connection came last year when he became homesick while doing an internship from January to June in India.

"My first video was just me talking from India," said Cron, who is in his third year at Marshall taking systems networking and systems securities. "It got kind of lonely for a while. I just put one up, and when I did, I started searching YouTube and saw people were just blowing up on YouTube and becoming overnight sensations. When I got back to the U.S., I thought, well people love the tone of my sax and my style of music, but what if I started trying to relate it to songs that you never imagine a sax being played on."

Cron surfed YouTube and hit upon Tay Zonday's quirky hit, "Chocolate Rain," a song that many YouTube viewers were taking and making their own versions of.

Cron went to his bedroom, plugged his microphone into his laptop and, armed with Cool EditPro, put up his own "saxy version" of the original "Chocolate Rain," which has gotten some 33 million views.

"Tay Zonday blew up overnight, and he mentioned my video when YouTube asked what his favorite video was of someone re-doing his song," Cron said. "He said my song. ... When I put my first video on, I don't know, I got a couple thousand views in an hour and that kind of tipped me off. That was amazing. So I started putting them on as quick as I could."

Cron, who outside of Christ Temple does a few rare gigs in the area with fellow Christ Temple musician Sean Pauley, began blowing his sweet horn on a wide range of the latest hip-hop and pop songs including Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back," One Republic's hit "Apologize" that featured Timbaland and several songs by YouTube stars such as Louisville keyboardist and hip-hop artist Ronald Jenkees, whose song "Clutter" has been re-done by a bunch of YouTube viewers.

In fact, in six months, Cron's version of "Clutter" has chalked up more than 127,000 views and counting and has gotten him some great props from Jenkees himself.

"He wants me on his next album," Cron said. "He's been doing a lot. He just got done doing the ESPN theme song and has been working with Papa Roach and Weezer."

Cron said he and Pauley, who just did a gig with Dolly Parton's sister, Stella, are stoked to be introducing younger people to a broader range of what guitar and sax can do.

"When we first started doing it hearing sax and guitar, especially an acoustic piece with no vocals, was unheard of," Cron said. "We thought it would be cool to start experimenting and see what we could come up with in trying to do more 21st century songs that people can relate to like John Legend and John Mayer songs. ... We're just trying to hit on some new styles so we can show people our age that sax and guitar isn't strictly used for jazz or rock or any specific style of music. We're trying to define a new style."

While Cron and Pauley, a Marshall student studying international affairs, hope to make a CD this year, they also hope to play a few more gigs around the city as well.

This past summer, they played the pre-show at Huntington Outdoor Theatre in Ritter Park and set up and played at Empire Books and News in addition to their Sunday worship sessions at Christ Temple.

Even though Cron is letting his sax do the talking (he's not even told many local people about putting up his music videos), the musician who has been playing saxophone since he was 15 and clarinet since he was 12 wouldn't mind doing music full time someday if something good hits his inbox.

"Even five years ago you really needed to be in New York or Hollywood or at least in a bigger state where there's a lot of talent searching going on. Now, you've got all these people who used to travel all over the world chilling at the office and browsing MySpace and YouTube," Cron said. "YouTube and MySpace has opened up the world to musicians who no longer have to wait for a label to pluck them up. As long as you build up a fanbase and have a good amount of views, you can be like Ronald Jenkees, he's not signed to any labels, he's just sitting in his room, putting CDs out and selling them like mad over the Internet. We no longer have to wait for somebody to find you -- just put your stuff out there and start exposing it to the world."

AP Video

The Herald-Dispatch file photo

Justin Cron, left, and Sean Polly perform before the Huntington Outdoor Theatre production of "Romeo and Juliet" on Saturday July 19, 2008. Cron plays saxophone and has become one of the biggest Tri-State-based musical stars of YouTube.

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Photo courtesy of Justin Cron

Justin Cron is getting his degree in computers at Marshall University and works as a computer technician for the J.W. Scott Community Center. He also plays saxophone and has become one of the biggest Tri-State-based musical stars of YouTube.

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