Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist A.J. Croce waited decades to play his famous father’s songs, developing a setlist from Jim Croce’s catalog for his Croce Plays Croce tour at 50 years old.
Croce Plays Croce tours to Bloomington this weekend, for one performance only on Sunday, Sept. 28.
“I’m looking forward to it," he said. I’m spending my birthday in Bloomington."
Singer-songwriter and master guitar player Jim Croce died Sept. 20, 1973, in a plane crash. He was 30, the crash happening just before his son’s second birthday. The elder Croce’s career had just taken off, with hits like Time in a Bottle, Operator and Bad, Bad Leroy Brown among some of the most popular of the decade.
A.J. started gigging at age 12 and, by the mid-1990s, had established a career all his own, culled from roots, blues, soul and rock influences like Ray Charles, Arlo Guthrie, Etta James and Jimmy Reed.
Thus, Croce Plays Croce isn’t limited to just one Croce. He’ll also play songs from his own catalog, including tracks from a new LP called Heart of the Eternal, released earlier this year with Nashville producer Shooter Jennings.
“It’s always been Croce plays both Croces,” he said, “but the focus of it is my father’s legacy.”
Though Croce avoided playing his father's music until recently, it was impossible to avoid it altogether.
“I love my father’s music, he said. “I worked behind the scenes for the last nearly 30 years to be able to share his music with the public and make sure that that the legacy is preserved—and that his music is in the world.”
Part of the delay was about getting out from behind his dad’s shadow to establish a career on the merits. Firmly there, it’s now about more about ensuring the songs are played as intended.
“I'm not a cover band,” he said, pointing to and all-star slate of musicians joining him on the tour. Still, Croce takes very few artistic liberties with his dad's catalog—which given the length of Jim Croce's career, so few fans got to hear performed live.
“I think one of the reasons I waited so long to perform his music was because it's precious to a lot of people," Croce said. "Something like Operator, people know all the words to it. I want to be thoughtful and consider the way that people know the music.”
Croce said learning his father's music, first of all, made him a better guitar player. And performing it brought new fans to his own music, which on the surface sounds quite different, but is cut from the same cloth.
“My influences are far older than my parents’ generation,” he said. “It’s coming from the roots of rock and roll. It’s coming from folk music. It’s coming from jazz and blues and country. You can hear the influences of R&B in my father’s music. You can hear Jimmy Reed in You Don’t Mess Around with Jim. You hear Chuck Berry in Rapid Roy. You hear all that boogie-woogie that came out of the ‘40s and ‘50s in Leroy Brown. Those colors are all present in the music I write. I’ve just had the life I’ve been able to live to expand upon that.”
Croce Plays Croce takes place at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, 600 N. East St., Bloomington. Tickets are $38-$95 at 309-434-2777 and artsblooming.org.
