AJ Croce singing Jim Croce’s ‘Leroy Brown’ at 50 th Year Tour Celebration San Jose 10-24

Something remarkable happened last night. I saw Jim Croce perform live (or does I?) What happened? Did I just see Jim Croce or or what tonight? Here it is 2024 , I think, and Jim Croce I thought passed in 1974. I feel like I just time traveled back to 1974 . Well, it wasn’t Jim Crow byt his son but you can fool me. Id lost track of AJ Croce over the years. I knew Jim had a son who was just going I to music, himself. I never imagined a other Jim Croce but AJ might have come as close as one could to pulling it off. They may not have looked exactly the same but father and son sure sounded alike and Jim Croce Jr, AKA AJ Croce is quite the showman like his father.

it’s like my Rip Van Winkle dream.

I went to sleep 40 years ago and I woke up and Jim Croce is back to my amazement and delight. It may not be the Jim Croce we remember from early ’70s but his son AJ Croce is not the spitting image but very very much like Jim ,playing and singing sounding so good -great musician(both guitar and keyboards) and singer and what a showman with a personality much like his dad’s . He tells stories like his Dad did .

It’s an amazing thing . it’s like 40 years went by and this was happening and I was totally ignorant. I knew that Jim Croce had a son. in fact, I visited his mom’s restaurant in San Diego’s Gaslamp disgrict many years ago. I knew AJ was going into the music business and even performed at the restaurant as a young man. but I never heard anything more for 40 , 50 years He was under the radar , at least for me- and I follow these things-and I usually hear of these things but only rexently did I hear the name fornthebfirst time in manybydars – thst hed be appearing at the San Jose Civic , a sizable venue for a lesser known artist, or so I thouht. I bought a ticket and, amazingly,it was near Full House close to 5000 people to my further amazeme t. what happened- it’s like Jim Croce never left , only

now it’s his son and what a great experience to have Jim Croce back, so to speak.

Just amazing how I somehow missed this one all these years and now I have to catch up and see what he’s been up to . It’s much like when Roy Orbison passed in 1988 I had not followed him not realizing that he would still was still making music through the late ’60s and ’70s even into the 80s but very much under the radar. I got to discover all of that music I never knew about.

AJ Croce has made some his own music and now he’s celebrating 50 years of Jim Croce cause Jim Croce passed in 1974 after three great fantastic albums in that plane wreck . and now AJ Croce is doing a tour in tribute to his dad called ‘Croce sings Croce’ and we’ve got a few samples here for you. I’m so glad I woke up from my Rip Van Winkle sleep just in time to Cha celebrating his dad and now I will become I am a fan and will follow him and not hopefully miss anymore concerts or music from the Croce s.

So, to conclude, it was just incredible evening- it’s like coming out of a deep sleep !

and finding out one of your all to e favorites isn’t gone because his so is doing such a good job carrying on the legacy.

It’s one of those happy experiences in life that only come around once in a while. A similar one actually happened only a month ago when I saw Jimmy Dale son of surf Pioneer guitarist Dick Dale, but Jimmy was much younger and with a much smaller audience but nonetheless just nearly as talented as his dad from what I could tell and hopefully off on a good career continuing dick day Legacy so we have things to look forward to. Kudos to both AJ and Jimmy to what they’ve done to perpetuate the legacy of their fathers.

You may be wondering what we’re doing in 1974 or the early 70s when we normally concentrate on music from the 50s and 60s. Well I always considered Jim Croce the Buddy Holly of the seventies and occasionally there is an artist that has the sensibilities and the feeling of the 50s 60s. While Jim Croce’s music may not be classic rock and roll there’s a lot of the same feeling from the singer songwriter musician with such well-crafted songs just like Betty Holly. Not a bad song in the bunch those three albums I used to wear out when I was going to UCLA and all three of my roommates were equally great fans of Croce and that was the one thing that brought us together cuz we had different personalities but we all love Jim Croce’s music and that was really the only artist of the early 70s that I can remember getting very excited about other than the Vintage artists that would tour and come around or appear on Midnight Special TV with Wolfman Jack. Actually AJ Croce is even more like Buddy Holly at least an appearance with the black glasses and more of a 50s 60s look without the big curly hair of his dad. Unfortunately I got to the concert late as I often do hoping there’d be an opening act that I could miss but I ended up missing part of the show so I cannot report fully.

A little research found that Jim Croce’s devoted wife Ingrid is still with us and going strong in all her Endeavors in San Diego, including her restaurant and Croce company and art though she doesn’t sing anymore since having a throat operation

Croce Biography (2012)

https://amzn.to/4hpKf1q

Yesterday And Today

A Conversation with Ingrid Croce (and husband Jimmy Rock) re.

Croce biography
https://amzn.to/4eXnMqz

MORE on The Amazing Croces- Talk about bouncing back from Tragedies

Blinded after being hurt by his mother’s boyfriend (following Jim’s passi.g), AJ loses sight for 6 years, and now can only see out of one eye. He is self taught , much while blind listening to Ray Charles AND Stevie Wonder … and then his wife dies of rare virus while he’s on tour…. and if it wasn’t for
recent concert I wouldn’t know all this. interesting cover just like his dads now 50 year old LP ‘Ive Got A Name.’ ( and AJ now has his own ‘name’ – he refused to try to copy dad and only recently started playing his dad’s music in concert.) mother Ingrid is Jewish and musical herself thou lost her voice after a throat operation. Unbelievable with this family went through and ..more to learn ,perhaps from biography I will be reading>