Like only the most enduring of artists, A.J. Croce embodies a joyful love of music that's fully matched by his phenomenal talent. A piano virtuoso who started playing as a small child and toured with B.B. King at just 18-years-old, the Nashville-based singer/songwriter has since collaborated and performed with legends and luminaries across a wide expanse of genres (Willie Nelson, Leon Russell, Ry Cooder, Allen Toussaint, to name a few), all while building up an acclaimed catalog that blurs the boundaries between blues, soul, rock & roll, Americana, and much more. When it came time to create his new album Heart of the Eternal, Croce joined forces with in-demand producer Shooter Jennings (Brandi Carlile, Tanya Tucker) and once again pushed the limits of his artistry, arriving at a transcendent selection of songs that journey from psychedelia to Philadelphia soul to Latin-infused jazz-pop with both unbridled imagination and sophisticated grace.
Recorded at the famed Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, Heart of the Eternal came to life during his downtime from the ongoing Croce Plays Croce tour--a widely celebrated run in which he performs classic songs from his late father Jim Croce, along with his own material and a number of specially curated covers. For help in shaping the freewheeling but exquisitely composed sound of his eleventh studio LP, Croce enlisted the first-rate musicians who make up his longtime live band, including bassist David Barard (a Grammy-winner who performed with Dr. John for nearly four decades), drummer Gary Mallaber (whose credits include iconic albums like Van Morrison's Moondance and Tupelo Honey), and guitarist James Pennebaker (Delbert McClinton, Jimmie Dale Gilmore). The follow-up to his critically lauded cover album By Request--and first original body of work since 2017's Just Like Medicine, hailed as "brilliant" by No Depression and a "fluid expression of sorrow and gratitude" by Pop Matters--the result is the latest evidence of Croce's profound gift for imbuing his songwriting with equal parts hard-won wisdom and heart-on-sleeve emotion.
Kicking off with a glorious bang, Heart of the Eternal opens on the exuberant grooves of "I Got A Feeling": a swaggering piece of psychedelic soul threaded with so much lovingly delivered insight (e.g., "There's a message in the tension on the road to inner peace/When you lose the thing you want, you find the thing you need"). Co-written with Tommy Sims (Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt), the gritty yet radiant track finds Croce taking the helm on lead guitar. "From having done all the Croce Plays Croce shows over the past few years, I'm starting to feel a lot more confident as a guitar player," he notes. Another song featuring his exhilarating performance on lead guitar, "Hey Margarita" brings fiery riffs to a fuzzed-out and high-spirited blues-funk anthem. "With that song in particular I felt inspired by Link Wray and [Chicago blues visionary] Hubert Sumlin, and I wanted it to sound like I was playing through an old radio," Croce reveals.
One of the most powerful moments on Heart of the Eternal, "Reunion" takes the form of a gospel-leaning number spotlighting Croce's warmly impassioned vocals and the luminous harmonies of backup vocalists Jackie Wilson and Katrice Ford (both members of his touring band). With its indelibly hopeful contemplation of mortality and loss, "Reunion" emerged from a writing session with John Oates, whom Croce first met when the two performed at a 2023 Ryman Auditorium event honoring the legacy of John Prine. "When we wrote that song John's father had just turned 100 and told John how he couldn't wait for his reunion with his late wife," Croce recalls. "I thought the idea of reconnecting with someone in the afterlife was really beautiful, so John and I each took that song and created our own very distinct versions of it."
Encompassing everything from heartbreak ballads to existential reflections, Heart of the Eternal endlessly illuminates the tremendous depth of Croce's musicality. On "Complications of Love," for instance, the album takes on a beguiling intensity thanks to the track's hypnotic rhythms, lavish guitar lines, and moody violin melodies. "I wrote that song feeling inspired by tango and Django Reinhardt and all these different styles of music with a very romantic element, and the way it came together was a total surprise," Croce says of the latter. And on the album-closing "The Finest Line," he joins country star Margo Price for a soul-searching meditation on the spirit's destiny after death, setting their call-and-response vocals against a backdrop of haunting harmonies and spellbinding piano work. "I wrote 'The Finest Line' in a very dreamlike state, without even thinking of turning it into a duet," he says. "But Margo just happened to stop by the studio and offered to sing, and it worked perfectly for the song."
All throughout Heart of the Eternal, Croce showcases his dazzling singularity as a pianist--a quality born from a lifelong devotion to his very first instrument. "When I first started playing, I was so little that I couldn't even walk to the piano--I had to crawl to it," he points out. Later in his childhood, piano became something of a lifeline for Croce, who suffered a total loss of eyesight from ages four to ten and turned to blind pianists like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder for much-needed comfort and inspiration. Over the course of an extraordinary career that's found him working with some of the most esteemed producers in music history--including Jack Clement (Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley), Tony Berg (Fiona Apple, Bob Dylan), and Greg Cohen (Tom Waits, John Zorn)--Croce has routinely sought out collaborators who help him to uncover new and unexpected ways of working with piano. To that end, Jennings proved to be an ideal creative partner for the making of Heart of the Eternal. "I love the idea of taking this beautiful instrument and making it sound different than it's ever sounded before, so Shooter and I did a lot of experimenting where we were using guitar pedals and putting unusual effects on the wonderful old Steinway at his studio," says Croce. "Anytime I'm outside my comfort zone it feels really exciting to me, because that's what helps me to grow as a musician."
In the tradition of past releases like his 2009 album Cage of Muses, the title to Heart of the Eternal serves as a subtle nod to Croce's emotional and spiritual relationship with music. "Music has given me everything: it's taught me patience and compassion and empathy; it was my refuge and my religion when I lost my sight as a kid," he says. "When I look back at the music that's inspired me the most, it's the music that has real depth and soul to it, whether that's Little Richard or Otis Redding and Hank Williams or Fiona Apple. Anything that makes me feel is meaningful to me, and I hope that everyone can find that same connection with all of these songs."
