Chattanooga Times Free Press - ChattanoogaNow
A.J. Croce: Rebranding the family name
Son of ’70s star Jim Croce performs in Chickamauga on Saturday
The Jayhawk Music & Arts Festival’s headliner has a highly recognizable name. It’s a reputation his father built with No. 1 hits such as “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” and “Time in a Bottle.” Now, 45 years later, the son is following in his footsteps.
A. J. Croce — son of the late Jim Croce — will perform Saturday, Aug. 4, in Chickamauga, Georgia.
Croce, who is touring in support of latest album “Just Like Medicine,” says he draws inspiration from the Southern music tradition.
“I was more influenced by my dad’s record collection than I was by him,” says Croce.
“Not that I didn’t love his music, but it was just one of those things where I lost my sight at a young age and I got turned on to Ray Charles and we had a piano at the house. As I was sort of getting my sight back during that period, it was a great way of getting a certain sense of confidence to be able to play music. It came naturally,” he said.
After losing his famous singer-songwriter father at age 2, the younger Croce found his own musical way while being raised by his mother, Ingrid, who had been part of a folk duo with her late husband.
While he didn’t get to really know his pop, the Pennsylvania native does get to connect on his album thanks to the song “Name of the Game,” a previously unreleased song by his dad t hat was slated to appear on 1973’s “I Got a Name,” his father’s last album.
“When I brought songs in [ while recording], I never told Dan [ album producer Dan Penn] who I co-wrote with or who wrote the song. I’d just tell him to check this or that out. That happened right up until the day we recorded that song of my dad’s, which I just thought was a soulful song that I had on a cassette,” Croce says.
“I heard it for the first time in my early 30s. ‘Name of the Game’ was one of the last songs that he wrote, so it was kind of an opportunity to collabo- rate with my dad in a way that I probably won’t have again in that same way.”
For his current tour, Croce’s sidemen include veteran bassist David Berard ( Dr. John, Allen Toussaint), drummer Gary Mallaber (Van Morrison, Steve Miller) and up- and- coming guitarist Garrett Stoner.
While he’ll mix in music of his father and his own 25 years of recording, he’s promising to throw in plenty of surprises that come from a childhood spent delving into artists ranging from Woody Guthrie to Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and Solomon Burke.
“What can people expect? A really energetic show that will have people coming away and asking what just happened,” Croce says. “There might even be covers of things they were unaware of having been done by certain people—that’s kind of what makes it all so much fun.”