“Croce Plays Croce 50th-Anniversary Tour" at the Adler Theatre -- July 21.
Sunday, July 21, 6 p.m.
Adler Theatre, 136 East Third Street, Davenport IA
A celebration of the legendary hitmaker behind "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," "Time in a Bottle," "You Don't Mess Around With Jim," "Operator," and other iconic tunes, the Croce Plays Croce 50th-Anniversary Tour will find Jim Croce's Billboard-charting singer/songwriter son A.J. saluting his father at Davenport's Adler Theatre on July 21, the event coinciding with the recent BMG release of the three-record compilation project The Definitive Croce.
On the Croce Plays Croce 50th Anniversary Tour, the gifted multi-instrumentalist A.J. Croce will be backed by percussionist Gary Mallaber, bassist/singer David Barard, and guitarist/violinist James Pennebaker, and will be accompanied by background singers Jackie Wilson and Katrice Donaldson. The show will include a moving, multi-media experience in which A.J. will perform his own songs, in addition to tracks from Jim’s mega-successful albums included in The Definitive Croce (Life & Times, I Got a Name, and You Don't Mess Around), which was released last year for what would've been Jim’s 80th birthday before his untimely passing. Says A.J., “We’ll be playing songs representative from all three albums, and also some songs the audience might not know from more obscure artists that I realized connected me and my father. It was those songs that eventually led me to do this show in the first place.” He adds, “People often come in thinking the show will be a quiet, nostalgic, precious display of my father’s songs – but it’s not precious at all. We give them an energetic, live show. The audience expects one thing, but by the time they leave, they realize they’ve experienced something completely different -- and they leave not only with a new perspective on Jim, but as fans of mine as well."
Over the past three decades, A.J. Croce has established his reputation as a piano player and vocal stylist who pulls from a host of musical traditions and anti-heroes — part New Orleans, part juke joint, part soul. A virtuosic piano player, A.J toured with B.B. King and Ray Charles before reaching the age of 21, and over his career, he has performed with a wide range of legendary musicians, from Willie Nelson to the Neville Brothers to Béla Fleck. A.J. has also co-written songs with such formidable tunesmiths as Leon Russell, Dan Penn, Robert Earl Keen, and multi-Grammy winner Gary Nicholson. His albums have all charted on an impressive array of charts: Top 40, blues, Americana, jazz, college and Radio 1. Additionally, the Nashville-based singer/songwriter has landed 22 singles on a variety of Top 20 charts. His songwriting and style has evolved from jazz and blues on his debut and sophomore albums, to the roots-rock of the more recent collaborative recordings such as Cantos with Ben Harper, Twelve Tales with Allen Toussaint, and Just Like Medicine with Vince Gill.
A.J. Croce's Croce Plays Croce 50th-Anniversary Tour lands in Davenport on July 21, admission to the 6 p.m. concert event is $44-89, and tickets are available by calling (800)745-3000 and visiting DavenportLive.com/the-adler-theatre.
