Search - Jim Croce :: Home Recordings: Americana

Where has this been?

Rand Higbee | Hager City, WI United States | 09/26/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I was a fan of Jim Croce before he died. I played my 45 of "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" so many times during the Summer of '73 that I darn near wore it out. When he died that September it seemed terribly unfair to me. I was just just discovering and learning to appreciate this man's music, and now he was gone.



It became easy back then to collect virtually every song that Croce ever recorded. There simply wasn't that much: Three studio albums, an earlier album that he recorded with his wife and a small collection of leftovers that had never been released. That was it. You could play it all in a few hours on a rainy Saturday afternoon.



Of course, this small collection of music was packaged and repackaged over and over in the years after his death. His greatest hits, his greatest love songs, his greatest character songs...you name it. With no new recordings possible the record companies did the best they could with what was available.



So who would have possibly thought that over 30 years later an entire album of unreleased material could be put into a new CD? When I first heard of "Home Recordings" I feared the worst. Bad quality. Bad songs. I would defintely have to avoid this album.



I am very glad that I did NOT avoid this album.



No, the quality is not that of a studio album. But for a "kitchen table" recording it sounds surprisingly good. And while nothing on this album is going to replace "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" as my all-time favorite Croce recording, I am quite surprised by how much I do enjoy these songs. In fact, I find myself singing "You Oughta See Pickles Now" quite often in the shower these days.



If you are a fan of Jim Croce put away your hesitations and pick up this album. You won't regret it."

This is a HOME RECORDING, it is AMERICANA to a T

Eric Ward | St. Louis Missouri | 01/21/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"With every new artist coming out today with there crystal clean sounds and studio tricks, many people long for "their old stuff". Their old stuff was made when they didn't have quite the same sheen and radio friendliness as they have now, but much more emotion and rawness. Jim Croce's old stuff is what it says it is. OLD STUFF. Old as in scratchy covers recorded on an old recorder in an old home in Pennsylvania, before Jim was an established radio friendly studio artist. You're not going to here Bad Bad Leroy Brown, or Time in A Bottle, but you will hear and feel the heart of a man who recorded such songs in a time before he was produced, remastered, and thrown to the public. Many may say this stuff never should have left the house, and that someone should have remastered, or cleaned it up, but I think if that were the case, it would have lost it's appeal. Although it isn't really new Jim Croce, it is new to us."

TIMELESS PIECE OF JIM'S MUSICAL LEGACY

kynitetripper | Mesa, Arizona | 02/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This new collection is a treasure trove of never before released recordings. What makes this collection special is that these songs were recorded by Jim at his kitchen table. These unpolished recordings reveal deep honesty and muscial sincerity. It's nice to listen to these recordings, especially after Jim has been gone for so long. Any true Jim Croce fan's collection is not complete without this CD,it's a great find!"