<\/p>\n
SPRINGFIELD \u2014 Known as a fabulous storyteller and singer\/songwriter whose life was cut short in a plane crash after the release of just two albums, Jim Croce\u2019s legacy and songs live on in a special show, Croce Plays Croce, now on tour and starring his son A.J. Croce.<\/p>\n
\u201cCroce Plays Croce \u2013 Where the Songbook Ends, The Story Begins\u201d tour will come to the Aria Ballroom at MGM Springfield on Friday.<\/p>\n
Showtime is 8 p.m.<\/p>\n
Despite his death in 1973, Croce has enjoyed decades of posthumous fame with sales surpassing 50 million records, including three No. 1 songs and 10 Top 10 hits.<\/p>\n
\u201cCroce performs Croce\u201d is a special night of music featuring a complete set of classics by A.J.\u2019s late father, some of his own tunes, and songs that influenced both him and his father. Songs to be performed will include \u201cOperator,\u201d \u201cYou Don\u2019t Mess Around with Jim,\u201d \u201cTime in a Bottle\u201d (a song written for A.J.), \u201cRapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy),\u201d \u201cLovers Cross\u201d and many others. <\/p>\n
A successful musician in his own right, it took Croce 30 years before performing any of his father\u2019s songs in concert. But, looking ahead to the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of his father\u2019s breakthrough album, \u201cYou Don\u2019t Mess Around with Jim,\u201d he began thinking about putting a show together to honor his father.<\/p>\n \u201cI began playing some of my father\u2019s songs in shows back in 2019 to see what a show might look like, sound like, feel like and what was working and what wasn\u2019t working. I knew that I would be opening a Pandora\u2019s Box once I started playing my father\u2019s music after 30 years of not playing a single song,\u201d Croce said, adding that he wanted to do it \u201con his own terms\u201d and make sure that it would be a really \u201csolid show\u201d for audiences.<\/p>\n \u201cThe response was insane. After all the years of coming to my concerts, nobody expected me to play one of my father\u2019s songs. It became fun to just throw some of his songs in here and there. When I did, the joy and love that I felt from the audience in those moments was profound,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n In 2022, on the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of his father\u2019s album, \u201cYou Don\u2019t Mess Around with Jim,\u201d he put a fall tour together featuring a seven-piece ensemble and a multimedia production. The group played the record in its entirety, and then played a second set that had some of Jim\u2019s other hits, some of A.J.\u2019s own music, and some of the roots music where it all came from.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was this beautiful thing that happened when I started playing a whole show of my father\u2019s music, which can\u2019t happen with just a song or two in a show. It was that people came to the show looking for this nostalgia. They were embracing that. And they were coming to hear the hits and all of them are present. But what they were not expecting was for this kind of nostalgia to come alive,\u201d Croce said.<\/p>\n Croce added that he does not consider himself to be a traditional cover band. <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re going to hear the hits, some that I play just like you hear on the record and some that I don\u2019t. I\u2019m a stylist, if anything, when it comes to performing someone else\u2019s music. I\u2019m going to perform it like myself. But I also recognize that there are certain songs that are precious to the audience and I want to be respectful of that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n His \u201cCroce Plays Croce\u201d tour is a celebration of two of his father\u2019s legendary albums, 1973\u2019s \u201cLife and Times,\u201d and his final release, \u201cI Got A Name,\u201d in addition to songs from \u201cYou Don\u2019t Mess Around with Jim.\u201d This year\u2019s tour commenced with the Oct. 13 release of \u201cThe Definitive Croce\u201d collection. The tour will continue over the next year from coast to coast.<\/p>\n Over the past three decades, A.J. Croce has established a reputation as a piano player and vocal stylist influenced by a host of musical traditions and anti-heroes \u2013 part New Orleans, part juke joint, part soul. His 10 studio albums show a respect for all musical genres including blues, soul, pop, jazz, and rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. He toured with B.B. King and Ray Charles before the age of 21. He has also performed with a wide range of musicians from Willie Nelson to the Neville Brothers to Bela Fleck and Ry Cooder. His albums have all charted on a wide array of charts: Top 40, blues, Americana, jazz, college and Radio 1 and the Nashville-based singer\/songwriter has landed 22 singles on a variety to Top 20 charts<\/p>\n Accompanying him on the tour will be drummer Gary Mallaber, who has worked with Van Morrison and the Steve Miller Band; bassist\/singer David Barard, who has worked with Dr. John; and guitarist\/violinist James Pennebaker, who has worked with Delbert McClinton. The shows will also feature background singers Jackie Wilson and Katrice Donaldson.<\/p>\n Tickets, available online at mgmspringfield.com, range in price from $73.84 to $256.64 for A.J.\u2019s Premium Seat VIP Package.<\/p>\n For more information on A.J., visit ajcrocemusic.com<\/a>, and for more information on his father, visit jimcroce.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.masslive.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SPRINGFIELD \u2014 Known as a fabulous storyteller and singer\/songwriter whose life was cut short in a plane crash after the release of just two albums, Jim Croce\u2019s legacy and songs live on in a special show, Croce Plays Croce, now on tour and starring his son A.J. Croce. \u201cCroce Plays Croce \u2013 Where the Songbook […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2162055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2162055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2162056,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162055\/revisions\/2162056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2162055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2162055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2162055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}