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AJ Croce PresentsThe Jim Croce Birthday Bash
CROCE PLAYS CROCE
FRI, 10 JAN 2025 at 08:00PM EST
Ages: All Ages (under 16 with adult)
Doors Open: 07:00PM
OnSale: Fri, 16 Aug 2024 at 10:00AM EDT
Announcement: Tue, 13 Aug 2024 at 10:00AM EDT
After
50
years
and more than
50
million records sold, Jim Croce’s legacy as an iconic
singer/songwriter is firmly cemented. A.J. Croce, a
Billboard
charting singer, songwriter, multi
-
instrumentalist, and performer,
returns this fall, bringing
Jim’s
classic songs to the stage with his
“Croce Plays Croce 50th Anniversary Tour
.
”
A
fter 10 studio albums and 30 years of touring the
world establishing his own career, in the early 2000’s
,
A.J. taught himself guitar and seve
ral of
his father’s
(Jim’s)
classics. The fan response from dropping in a song or two like “Operator” in
his own show was astounding and deeply emotional. He then debuted a concert that celebrated
the legacy of his father’s songs, stories and music
;
as well as his own.
The show
featured two
generations of Croce music and many songs by other artists which connect father and son as
performers. Throughout the past seven years
,
A.J.’s
“
Croce Plays Croce
”
tour
has sold
out
performing arts centers across A
merica
. In 2022, in celebration of the
50th
anniversary of Jim’s
breakthrough album
,
You Don’t Mess Around With Jim
, A.J. honored
the memory of his father
with
a
f
all tour
featuring a
seven piece ensemble and a multimedia production.
A.J. is hitting the road again this year in celebration of two of Jim Croce’s legendary albums,
1973’s
Life and Times,
and his final release,
I Got A Name
;
in addition to songs from
You Don’t
Mess Around With Jim
. The much
-
anticipated fall
performances,
“
Croce Plays Croce
50th
Anniversary
Tour,”
commences on October 27, coinciding with the October
13
release of
The Definitive Croce
collection, and includes
performances
at
historic venues like New York City’s
Town Hall and Detroit’s Royal Oak Music Theatre.
The tour will continue over
the next year
from
coast to coast.
The
“
Croce Plays Croce 50th
Anniversary
”
show features a legendary
band
including
drummer Gary Mallaber (Van Morrison/Steve Miller Band), bassist/singer David Barard
(Dr. John), and guitarist/violinist James Pennebaker (Delbert McClinton)
; accompanied by
background singers Jackie Wilson and Katrice Donaldson
. The shows will also feat
ure
a moving
multi
-
media presentation
and
will
include
all of Jim’s chart
-
topping hits, as well as many deep
cuts.
Over the past three decades, A.J. Croce has established his reputation as a piano player and
vocal stylist who pulls from a host of musical
traditions and anti
-
heroes
—
part New Orleans,
part juke joint, part soul. From his
10
studio albums, it’s clear that he holds an abiding love for
all types of musical genres: Blues, Soul, Pop, Jazz, and Rock n’ Roll. A virtuosic piano player,
Croce toured
with B.B. King and Ray Charles before reaching the age of 21, and
over his
career, he has performed with a wide range of musicians, from Willie Nelson to the Neville
Brothers
,
to
Béla Fleck
and
Ry Cooder. A.J. has also co
-
written songs with such formidabl
e
tunesmiths as Leon Russell, Dan Penn, Robert Earl Keen
,
and multi
-
Grammy winner Gary
Nicholson. His albums have all charted on an impressive array of charts: Top 40, Blues,
Americana, Jazz, College, and Radio 1. The Nashville
-
based singer/songwriter has
landed 22
singles on a variety of Top 20 charts.
His songwriting and style
has
evolved from Jazz & Blues
on his debut and sophomore albums
,
to the roots
-
rock of the more recent collaborative
recordings like
Cantos
with Ben Harper,
Twelve Tales
with Allen Toussaint, and
Just Like
Medicine
with Vince Gill.
Croce Plays Croce 50 - A.J. 2023 Bio.docx
After many years of resisting numerous offers to perform Jim’s music,
A.J.
began mixing a few
of Jim’s songs into his regular tour performances. The key to making it work was not simply
coveri
ng the songs, but bringing his own style and flair to them, infusing a fresh, spontaneous
excitement.
Last
year
,
he released his latest single
,
“So Much Fun
,
”
and
the national television
show,
CBS Sunday Morning
,
featured
a
well
-
told story of A.J. and his
father on
Father’s Day.
On the first
“
Croce plays Croce
”
tour, A.J. discovered a fascinating phenomenon. “People often
come in thinking the show will be a quiet
,
nostalgic, precious display of my father
’
s songs
–
but
it’s not precious at all. We give
them a really energetic, live show. The audience expects one
thing, but by the time they leave, they realize they got something completely different
--
and they
leave not only with a new perspective on Jim, but as fans of mine as well.”
The two Jim Croce
albums that turn 50 in 2023 are
Life and Times
, originally released in
January of 1973, delivering
Billboard’s Hot 100
#1 single
,
“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” and
I Got A
Name
, his final studio album with the title song being released a week after his tragic pl
ane
crash on September 20, 1973. The album also featured the smash hit ballad
,
“I’ll Have to Say I
Love You In A Song,” and “Workin’ At The Car Wash Blues
.
”
By December of 1973
,
both
albums charted
on
Billboard
a
t
#1 and #2 on
the
album chart (a feat not
repeated by an artist
until the late 80s with Guns N’ Roses).
All three Jim Croce albums are being released this fall by
BMG as a box set
titled
the aforementioned
The Definitive Croce,
as well as individually in a
50th Anniversary special edition vinyl, CD and Dolby Atmos format.
The
50
th
Anniversary
show
will include songs from
You Don’t Mess Around With Jim
, which spent 93 weeks on the charts.
Jim’s records continue to be incorporated
into pop culture with unique film and television
placements in Quentin Tarantino’s
“
Django Unchained
,” “
Stranger Things,
”
an Apple Siri
commercial,
“
Fast and Furious
”;
and with “Time in a Bottle
,
” in
“
X
-
Men: Days of Future Past.
”
The
“Croce Plays Croce”
shows have renewed
i
nterest in Jim Croce and garnered praise for
A.J: “I think they come as a Jim Croce fan but leave as fans of mine. That’s something that has
also made this whole experience really amazing.”
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Keswick Theatre, 291 N Keswick Ave,Abington,PA,United States
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