Some inheritances weigh more than others. A.J. Croce carries one of the heaviest and most beautiful — the songbook of his father, Jim Croce, who left behind a catalog of warmth, wit, and heartbreak before his life was cut short in a 1973 plane crash. A.J. was just two years old. He never got to know his father as a man. But he knows him as a songwriter, and that knowing runs bone-deep.
On April 9, 2026, A.J. Croce brings Croce Plays Croce to Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs, performing his father’s songs in the intimate, acoustically pristine setting of one of the Capital Region’s most treasured rooms.
The Croce Plays Croce show is not an impersonation or a tribute act. It’s a conversation across time — a son sitting down with his father’s words and finding new light in them. Jim Croce’s songs belong to that rare category of American music that feels like it was always here. A.J. treats them with the reverence they deserve while bringing his own considerable musicianship to the arrangements.
Universal Preservation Hall, a beautifully restored 1871 church turned performance space, is exactly where these songs belong. The hall’s soaring ceilings and warm acoustics lend a kind of cathedral gravity to any performance, and for music this personal, that intimacy matters.
There aren’t many chances to hear this music performed with this kind of authority and love. Don’t let this one pass.
Tickets are on sale now through Universal Preservation Hall’s box office.