It took decades for the veteran singer-songwriter to establish his career enough that he felt comfortable performing the music of Jim Croce, his late father. A.J.'s 'Croce Plays Croce' tour includes a San Diego show Saturday at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay
The San Diego-bred artist and son of Jim Croce turns to classics by Neil Young, Sam Cooke, Tom Waits and other greats as a form of musical catharsis in the face of tragedyHis only song to reach No. 1 during his lifetime was “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” in 1972. “I Got a Name,” Jim Croce’s third and final solo studio album before his fatal plane crash, was released two weeks after he perished at the age of 30.
“However great their parents might be, no one wants to be just like them,” A.J. Croce said in a 1993 San Diego Union-Tribune interview. “I didn’t feel like there would be any integrity in playing my dad’s music,” A.J. said, speaking from a recent concert tour stop in Rhode Island. The prelude to “Croce Plays Croce” came in 2012. It was only then A.J. felt comfortable enough to perform more than just a few of his father’s songs. He did so, again at Croce’s nightclub, to celebrate what would have been his dad’s 70th birthday.A.J.’s set list that night mixed some of his father’s best-known songs, including “Operator ,” with such deep album cuts as “Alabama Rain,” “These Dreams,” “Rapid Roy ,” and “One Less Set of Footsteps.
“Because it wasn’t a challenge to play them on piano. But to play ‘Time in a Bottle’ well, on guitar, is incredibly challenging. Also, when I was in my early 30s, I was transcribing a bunch of his music for archival purposes. I came across a tape he recorded of him practicing what he was going to play that night in a little bar.
“I got a sense from the audience how much they really valued it,” said A.J., who grew up in San Diego but now lives in Nashville.
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