Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Finding Time in a Bottle with the Music of A.J. Croce

Finding Time in a Bottle with  the Music of A.J. Croce
A.J. Croce will do two shows in March (one celebrates his new album, “By Request”) online for The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Mass. 
Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins​

Sometimes it’s hard to find the “click” with a new singer, one whose work isn’t presented to you on a platter by the radio, or a streaming channel or your kids or a friend or… And without someone to help you make a link to a song or a performer, sometimes you never find your way in.

So I don’t feel guilty about first being attracted to the singer-songwriter A.J. Croce  because he is the son of Jim Croce because who of a certain age didn’t love Jim Croce? The answer is no one. Jim Croce was the greatest. 

And while most people of my generation don’t agree on much, all of us at some time in our lives have thought, “Gee, I wish Jim Croce hadn’t died in that plane crash in 1973 in Louisiana.”

There were so many songs by him to love. But really you can only play them over and over again so many times. 

And so it was a happy revelation to learn that his son, A.J. Croce, is coming out with an album this month that’s called “By Request.” 

By a fluke, which I’ll explain in a minute, it is all covers of songs from the second half of the 20th century. They’re songs, he said in an interview, that his friends always ask him to play when he sits down at the piano or picks up a guitar. 

It’s interesting to note that none of the songs was written by his father. 

He does cover a song by his father’s good friend Randy Newman. He does “Nothing from Nothing,” made popular by Billy Preston; he’s got Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart;” he’s got “Ooh Child” by the Stairsteps, ubiquitous on the radio for so many years.

They’re all good. He’s a great guitar player and has a flexible voice that can be folk-y, ballad-y or have a deep bluesy growl. 

I’ll confess though that even though I enjoyed every song by him on Spotify the first time I heard it, what will send me back to his music is the way he sings his father’s songs.

You have to search around a little to find a Croce cover of Croce. Mostly you can see them on YouTube. A.J. has had a long career in the music business, and for most of it he has not played his father’s music.

But when he does, it lights up a special nostalgia pleasure center of your brain. His voice sounds much like his father’s voice. But curiously, A.J. Croce’s life has been so full of tragedy that his renditions of his father’s very moving songs is grittier, bluesier and more soulful. 

Croce has had a hard life. It’s not just that his father died when he was about 2. He also lost his sight when he was 4, either because of physical abuse by his mother’s boyfriend or because of brain tumors, depending on whose version of the story you hear (he did regain vision in his left eye many years later).

When he was a teen, the home he’d lived in with his mother for a decade and a half burned down.

Two years ago, his wife of 24 years died from a heart virus. That happened at a time when he was preparing this new album; he found he just couldn’t get himself to sit and write new songs, and so he decided to do an album of all cover songs, all performed live with a band of his friends (all experienced blues musicians).

This is a man who has a right to sing the blues, and he does it beautifully. Go to YouTube and find the unplugged version of Croce and a friend singing his father’s “Time in a Bottle,” out in the backyard (a song that his father wrote when he learned his wife was pregnant with A.J.). You might never go back to the original version. 

Or find the YouTube video of him performing his father’s “I’ve Got a Name.” It’s about living the dream that his daddy kept hid, as he moves on down the highway, past all the tragedy that time has tossed at him.

These performances stand alone, but they touch me more profoundly because they’re songs I’ve heard a thousand times, and now they sound new again to me. The voice is almost the same, but has more patina.

If the videos move and intrigue you, or if you want a different access point to A.J. Croce, watch two live performances hosted by The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Mass., on March 18 and 25.

The first concert is a debut outing for the new album, “By Request,” which is scheduled for release by Compass Records on Feb. 27. 

The second Mahaiwe show, on March 25, will be Croce and his band playing songs from the 10 albums he’s released in the past 30 years. He does blues, jazz, soul and rock ‘n’ roll, but in his hands really everything has a bluesy quality.

Tickets for the two Mahaiwe online shows are $15 for a single performance or $25 for both. To order, go to www.mahaiwe.org.

Latest News

Three rescuers suffer heat-related illness after rescuing injured hiker on Appalachian Trail

75 rescuers from 15 response teams across Litchfield and Dutchess Counties retrieved an injured and stranded hiker from the Appalachian Trail on Thursday afternoon, July 9. Hot and humid conditions complicated the effort, injuring three rescuers who have since recovered.

Courtesy of Kent Volunteer Fire Department

KENT – An injured hiker was rescued from a rugged section of the Appalachian Trail on Thursday, July 9, but the extreme heat took a toll on rescuers as well, leaving three first responders with heat-related illnesses. All four individuals were in stable condition Friday morning.

The hiker, who was hiking with at least one other person, was found to be dehydrated and suffering from heat-related illness on a section of the trail between the Schaghticoke campsite and Mount Algo campsite. The rescue drew about 75 emergency responders from Connecticut and New York. Responders were dispatched at 12:30 p.m. after a 911 call was placed, and crews wrapped up the scene around 7:30 p.m.

Keep ReadingShow less
Storm-damaged White Hart presses on with NASCAR Pit-Stop Party

The hauler of two-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes, of ThorSport Racing, rolls past The White Hart on Thursday, July 9, as spectators cheer along the route.

Madi Long

SALISBURY — Days after the July 4 storm left the White Hart Inn and much of Salisbury without power, electricity was restored 24 hours before the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Hauler Parade on Thursday, July 9, giving staff just enough time to salvage the inn’s planned pit-stop party.

Staff, community members and clean-up crews worked around the clock to clear storm debris from the White Hart lawn, allowing the inn to deliver on its promise of prime parade viewing.

Keep ReadingShow less

Legal Notices - July 9, 2026

Legal Notices - July 9, 2026

Legal Notice

BOND RESOLUTION DATED JUNE 15, 2026 OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE WEBUTUCK CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT AUTHORIZING NOT TO EXCEED $429,327 AGGREGATE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS AND/OR INSTALLMENT PURCHASE CONTRACTS TO FINANCE THE ACQUISITION OF A SCHOOL BUSES AND VEHICLES AT AN AGGREGATE ESTIMATED MAXIMUM COST OF$429,327, LEVY OF TAX IN ANNUAL INSTALLMENTS IN PAYMENT THEREOF TAKING INTO ACCOUNT STATE-AID, THE EXPENDITURE OF SUCH SUM FOR SUCH PURPOSE, AND DETERMINING OTHER MATTERS IN CONNECTION THERE-WITH.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Tenmile Distillery is making history the old-fashioned way

Cheers! The Revolutionary Whisky Series at Ten Mile Distillery, each named for a significant battle of the American Revolution, celebrates America at 250.

D.H. Callahan

In December 2024, the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau officially established the Standard of Identity for American Single Malt Whisky. It was the first new classification in more than half a century, creating new possibilities for American distillers. One of the distilleries taking advantage of this new landscape is Wassaic’s Tenmile Distillery. It is well positioned to make history because Tenmile has always honored traditional whiskey-making practices.

Single malts are often associated with Scotch whisky. Perhaps that’s why, years before the new standard was adopted, Tenmile hired Shane Fraser, a Scottish master distiller with 30 years of experience at some of Scotland’s most prestigious distilleries. Fraser began designing the distillery from the ground up. Alongside owner and general manager Joel LeVangia, he emphasized time-honored traditions, favoring hands-on craftsmanship over the increasingly automated methods used by larger producers. When it comes to making the best whisky possible, Tenmile believes in learning from the past. That philosophy extends beyond the distilling process.

Keep ReadingShow less

The magic of Belinda Sinclair

The magic of Belinda Sinclair

Belinda Sinclair

Dean Chamberlain
Sinclair’s show explores the ways women have been practicing forms of magic for centuries, and there is plenty of history to tell.

Belinda Sinclair is the kind of magician who impresses people who don’t like magic. Her tricks are mind-boggling. Her stories are captivating. And if she picks you to write your name on a card, get ready to be wowed. Repeat attendees of her shows, of which there are many, take almost as much delight in watching new jaws drop as they do in seeing an illusion reach its astonishing conclusion.

Since the summer of 2025, Sinclair has been baffling local audiences at the Hughes Memorial Library in West Cornwall, but her magical run comes to a close at the end of August.

Keep ReadingShow less

“Nixon in China” comes to Tanglewood

“Nixon in China” comes to Tanglewood

Renée Fleming, Andris Nelsons and Thomas Hampson.

Hilary Scott

On Friday, July 17 at 8 p.m. in the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood, two of the greatest American voices of their generation, soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Thomas Hampson, join Music Director Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a performance of excerpts from John Adams’ groundbreaking opera “Nixon in China.” The piece, performed earlier this year in Boston and at Carnegie Hall in New York City, is a highlight of a program that also includes “Meditations on Grace” (2024) by BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon, and the melodic and technically demanding Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber.

Fleming is internationally celebrated for her vocal and dramatic artistry, as well as for her advocacy for the powerful impact of the creative arts in health. Hampson has long been recognized as one of the most innovative musicians of our time and has received countless international honors for his singular artistry and cultural leadership. Both performed in “Nixon in China” earlier this year at the Paris Opera under the baton of Kent Nagano.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.