A.J. Croce has walked many a mile in Cincinnati. “It’s a beautiful city,” the acclaimed artist, singer/songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist tells Cincinnati Magazine from his home in Nashville. “I love walking around right on the river there. I’ve walked that exact path many times over the years.”
It’s a habit that Croce has adopted not only in Cincinnati but in most of the markets he’s playing while out on his Croce Plays Croce tour. “I try to walk four or five miles so I can really get a sense of the town,” he says. “It gives me a better sense of the people that are there and who are coming to the show. I want to be able to relate to them. The key to what makes this music and these stories effective and powerful is the fact that they’re universal. If you can’t see yourself or someone in the place you are within the stories you tell, then it’s just not going to work.”
That’s partly why Croce loves visiting historical places while out on tour––places such as downtown’s historic Taft Theatre on October 13. “I love old theaters,” he says. “A lot of times when I’m in a theater like that I’ll play things from the year it was built just because I want people there to have a connection to the space they’re in.”
“Connection” is what serves as the backbone of the entire Croce Plays Croce tour, as it allows Croce to connect musically to his late father, the legendary Jim Croce, who tragically passed away in 1973. A.J. was just 2 years old when he lost his father and the world lost the creator of lasting songs such as “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels),” “Time in a Bottle,” and “I Got a Name.” And while these familiar melodies certainly find themselves in the setlist, audiences can expect to hear so much more.
“The foundation that Croce Plays Croce was built on was because I realized we had this musical connection that involved our taste in music,” Croce explains. “We had so many thousands of songs we both loved. I think something changes every night when I walk on stage. The audience came there for purposes of nostalgia, and then I walk on stage and all of a sudden it becomes not about the past but about the present.”
Photograph courtesy jimcroce.com
Croce’s present includes his recently released album Heart of the Eternal, which includes melodic standouts such as “Reunion,” “So Much Fun,” and “The Finest Line,” a luscious duet with Margo Price that tackles the idea of mortality. “Within that song, there is just this recognition of life and death and the fact that we’re all so fragile,” he says. “I wouldn’t say that it was so much about spiritualism, but there is an element to that. There’s an esoteric aspect to it and certainly an ethereal aspect to it. Sometimes you’re in a place and you feel the presence of something.”
And, yes, Croce still feels his father’s presence. “It’s that veil between here and there that just seems so thin at any given moment,” he says, drawing in a deep breath. “I love playing his songs, and of course the songs bring back a lot of memories for a lot of people. I see people crying every night and laughing every night. The stories are the secret. People love to hear where the songs came from and the characters they were kind of loosely based on. I really could not have put this show together and made it impactful if it wasn’t for the stories.”
Facebook Comments