Croce Plays Croce: An evening out

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This past weekend, @mrsbozz and I got to share a really great experience with her dad. A while ago I was going through the upcoming acts at one of our local venues and I came across a show called Croce Plays Croce. It's been about 50 years since legendary singer Jim Croce (pronounced crow-chee) came out with his debut album and as a tribute to him, his son AJ Croce is doing a show where he covers a lot of his dad's old songs.

Since this post also has to do with music, I am going to include it as a #threetunetuesday post started by @ablaze and sponsored by some really great folks (or so I hear).

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It was actually an evening filled with music for us. We went to one of the local downtown areas to get probably some of the best BBQ in our area at a place called Molasses. I've written several posts about it in the past. During the summer, they block off the main street area and turn a couple of blocks into a bier garden with games, tables, and musical acts.

A band named Prior Noon just happened to be doing a sound check while we were sitting outside waiting for our dinner. We had to sit outside because the inside seating was absolutely packed!

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We were on a tight schedule to get to our show, so we just had one drink and our dinner and headed off on our way. It was pretty delicious. Shown above is my old fashioned made with Maker's Mark bourbon and an assortment of house made BBQ sauces that the place carries.

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@mrsbozz's father and I both got the meatloaf sandwich. She got her usual which is the smoked turkey dinner. It was absolutely delicious even though we had to chase away the late summer bees that were buzzing about our table.

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By the time we were ready to leave for our show, the downtown area was starting to fill up with people waiting to watch the concert. From what we heard of the soundcheck, the band was a little better than your average local band. I have a feeling they probably put on a quite good show.

It seems there were a lot of people waiting for concerts on this Saturday night. We were heading to AJ Croce, some people were staying for Prior Noon, and a group of ladies at the table next to us were "pre-gaming" for the Blake Shelton concert that was happening a couple towns over.

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We had some pretty good seats for the show. It's fairly easy to do at this venue, it's been an established part of the community for a long time and it hosts a variety of events from plays to musicals, comedians, orchestras, and everything in between. I've written about the Midland Center for the Arts several times already now.

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The show was absolutely phenomenal. AJ Croce played a number of his own songs (which were new to me) along with a large selection of his father's songs. He also played songs that he knew influenced both himself and his father.

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A lot of people don't realize that Jim Croce's career in music only lasted about 18 months before he died in a plane crash when AJ was just about two years old. Despite that fact, if you dig into his very brief catalog, you will find he has a ton of amazing songs.

He wrote about real life and things that people at the time could really relate to. I actually feel like the songs still hold a lot of weight today. Box #10 was one of the first songs he wrote as they were leaving New York City to move out to Pennsylvania.

While many people might be more familiar with the big hits like "Bad Bad Leroy Brown", "I'll have to say I love you", "You don't mess around with Jim", and "Time in a Bottle", I prefer to share some of the more lesser known songs from Jim.

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"New York's Not My Home" is another one of the songs that Jim wrote as they were leaving the big city to find a better life at a slower pace. I can't help but wonder what Jim might have been able to accomplish if he hadn't passed away so early. He had such a great voice and an amazing knack for writing a good song.

Knowing how his story ended make his songs a bit more melancholy than they already are in my opinion. I highly encourage you to dig into his catalog if you can.

(Unsupported https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/5QlP3iPpYL6gX7iEKrNFof?utm_source=generator)

Actually, just start right here. This is everything you need to dig into the world of Jim Croce. You will find deep meaningful songs, love songs, and some kind of funny songs too. He definitely had a great sense of humor. Rapid Roy has been stuck in my head all weekend!

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Finally, I want to share an original song from AJ. Although his dad passed early in his life, he was surrounded by some of the all time greats in the music industry. He grew up under the tutelage of icons like Sam Cooke and Ray Charles. If you dig into his catalog, you will find he is a very talented musician in his own right. I think his dad would be proud.

He is also a great story teller and the story about "Hung Up" is actually pretty interesting. He was approached by an Asian marketing agency that wanted him to write a song for an ad. They wanted something in the vein of "A Day In The Life" by the Beatles or "Mr. Blue Sky" by ELO, and "Hung Up" is what he came up with.

Apparently, this song was a quite big hit in Japan, so I wonder if @dbooster is familiar with it at all. If you like the style of this song, I highly encourage you to dig into the rest of AJ Croce's works. I don't think I could fit him into a single genre, but there are hints of jazz, beebop, blues, and probably a dozen other influences in his music.

If the Croce Plays Croce tour comes anywhere close to you, I highly encourage you to grab tickets for it. It was probably one of the best shows I have seen in a while. I could help but leave with a huge smile on my face and a new fondness for the music of both Jim and AJ.

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Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports

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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or @mrsbozz unless otherwise sourced