For the last few years, A.J. Croce has been messin’ around with Jim. Jim Croce that is. His father, a 1970s soul-folk-pop sensation, had a string of hits, including “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim”, “Operator” and “Time in a Bottle,” and was just about to release the album with “I Got a Name” on it when he was killed in a plane crash in 1973.
Over two years ago, A.J. Croce embarked on a “Croce Plays Croce” tour in which he honored the 50th anniversary of his father’s “Life and Times” and “I Got a Name” album. The show morphed into a new show which extended the set list beyond those two albums. The one that is happening on Jan. 12 at 8 p.m. at the Warner Theatre in Torrington is titled “The Jim Croce Birthday Bash.” It takes place a couple of days after A.J. Croce plays the state where both he and his father were born, Pennsylvania. Jim Croce would have turned 82 on Jan. 10.
The set is “absolutely focused on his stuff,” A.J. Croce said of the catalogue he’s drawing from. He also does covers of R&B and blues songs that his father loved.
A well-established songwriter and musician with 10 albums to his credit and a new single, “Complications of Love” that was released in November, A.J. Croce insisted on establishing himself as a songwriter, singer and musician in his own right before performing his father’s work. This wasn’t a short-term pledge. A piano player “since before I could walk,” A.J. Croce began performing professionally as a teenager, touring with Floyd Dixon of “Wine Wine Wine” fame when he was just 16 and recording with songwriter producer Cowboy Jack Clements when he was 17. He released his first solo album in 1993 when he was 22. It wasn’t until 2012 that he performed a few Jim Croce songs in a private setting.
“It came about in a pretty organic way,” Croce said. “I’ve been working behind the scenes for about 30 years” managing his father’s legacy. This year saw the rerelease of “Jim Croce Live: The Final Tour.” In 2022, Jim Croce was honored by Pennsylvania with an historical marker on his old farmhouse there.
“There’s a lot of commonality in our music. Performing it came about in a natural way. Twenty years ago, I was archiving a bunch of his music when I found a tape of all these covers he’d done, some of which were songs I’ve covered myself. There were songs by Mississippi John Hurt, Fats Waller and Bessie Smith. Not the well-known stuff but deep cuts. I grew up with his record collection, which as you’d expect was amazingly diverse. There’s a lot of R&B and soul, you can hear that on his recordings. I saw the connections, like dad loved Allen Toussaint and I played with Allen Toussaint.”
A.J. Croce began doing Jim Croce songs live and was pleased with the audience reaction. “I would just randomly throw in ‘Operator.’”
Though his primary instrument is the piano, A.J. Croce plays most of the Jim Croce hits as his father did, on guitar. “Some of them I’ve switched over to piano. I found an interesting way to play ‘Car Wash Blues’ on piano,” he said.
“I became a guitar player out of necessity. I wanted to be able to explain to what I was writing to the other guitar players. I was also humbling myself and handicapping myself. When I look at a keyboard, I knew all the options there can be and I couldn’t do that with a guitar, just play it straight ahead.”
The “Croce Plays Croce” shows finds A.J. Croce playing four different instruments onstage — acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano and electric keyboards — surrounded by a touring band and back-up singers. James Pennebaker, known for his work with Delbert McClinton, is on guitar, David Barard, a longtime member of Dr. John’s band, is on bass and Gary Mallaber, who played on important albums by Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen and appeared in the cult horror film “Phantom of the Paradise,” is on drums. It’s the same band he has had for his other tours for the past three years.
Besides reverent versions of some of Jim Croce songs, intriguing new interpretations of others and covers that help explore some inspirations and influences, A.J. Croce talks about his father between songs. Even though “it’s different every night, there’s a framework,” he said. “There’s a beginning, a middle and an end.”
He is an authority on his father’s life and work. Asked if there’s a real-life basis to the song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim,” he quickly responded “Oh, yeah, it’s about an actual experience he had in Philly, when he sold radio air time to local businesses. He was in this pool hall …”
A.J. Croce has already brought the “Croce Plays Croce” show to Connecticut at least three times: At the Garde Arts Center in New London in September 2023, at the Wall Street Theater (now District Music Hall) in February 2024 and at the Sacred Heart University Community Theatre in April 2024. He’ll be back in Connecticut on March 7 at Ridgefield Playhouse but playing mostly his own songs, not the “Croce Plays Croce” show.
He hasn’t forsaken his solo projects during this “Croce Plays Croce” phase. “I’ve been pretty busy lately. I wrote a song with John Oates, ‘Reunion’; it’s the title track of his new album. I recorded a different sounding version of it and it actually drew us closer. Collaboration is one of my favorite things.”
The new “Complications of Love” single he said, “started as an instrumental. It’s a little tango, a little Django (Reinhardt, the Belgian jazz guitarist). It’s kind of dramatic, also like a late-’60s baroque pop. It’s a bit of a riff on a Chopin etude. I’d had it around for a couple of years, so I went to California with my band in between legs of the tour last year.” He has been playing the song at some of the “Croce Plays Croce” shows.
A.J. Croce also enjoys interacting with live audiences. “I love touring. I felt terrible when I first began to see people take their phones out at shows, thinking ‘That’s going to be on the internet forever.’ It should be just for that moment. I’m grateful for the live experience. It’s the most fun, it’s the most freedom.”
A.J. Croce performs his “Croce Plays Croce” show on Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. at the Warner Theatre’s Oneglia Auditorium, 68 Main St., Torrington. $49-$69. warnertheatre.org.
