Two Generations of American Music: The son of legendary singer-songwriter Jim Croce, A.J.’s career began with his first tour at age 18 opening up for B.B. King. In the span of a 20+-year career, A.J. has headlined festivals, concerts and major listening venues worldwide. He has been seen on shows including Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Austin City Limits, & Good Morning America.

- This acclaimed singer/songwriter will perform his own songs and those of his legendary father, Jim Croce. For more than 20 years, creative pop iconoclast A.J. Croce has tapped a variety of American sounds in crafting his music. Croce’s nine albums have appeared on Top 40 and other charts, and when his breakout CD That’s Me in the Bar was reissued, it charted in two decades.

Always interested in exploring new musical territory, the Nashville-based singer/songwriter has created a very special concert experience that celebrates both his own music and that of his father, the late troubadour Jim Croce. A few years ago, A.J. was digitalizing some of his father’s old tapes and came across a cassette filled with covers of old blues and folk tunes by the likes of Fats Waller, Bessie Smith and Pink Anderson. It was a revelation to him. “He was playing stuff I played myself,” A.J. revealed, adding that “stuff made sense” discovering that his father and he had “all the music common.”

As he started to learn his father’s tunes, A.J. had to do it “the old fashion way, by listening to the recordings” because there were no chord books of Jim Croce music. A.J., who was developing his own guitar playing prowess, was particularly impressed with the complexities of his father’s compositions, especially in interplay between Croce and his longtime collaborator, lead guitarist Maury Muehleisen, who died with Croce in that fatal plane crash in 1973.

During the “Two Generations” concert at the Kirtland Center, A.J. also describes where his and his father’s songs came from. Not a tribute show, the evening is an entertaining look at how the two men’s songs relate to each other and to the American music that inspired them.

find out more about this spectacular artist at http://www.ajcrocemusic.com/