The son of 1970s icon Jim Croce, Adrian James Croce suffered another tragedy in childhood: he went completely blind at age four. As he gradually regained partial sight in one eye, he began to play the piano, emulating records by Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder. He grew into a musician who was anything but a Jim Croce clone, taking off from classic piano blues and growing into a unique keyboard-playing songwriter, with a preference for vintage instruments and a way of making a lot out of a very minimal song. A lot of musicians call themselves eclectic, but few can claim this: each of A.J.'s first five album releases hit the charts in a different genre (jazz, Americana, blues, AAA, college, and top 40, if you're keeping score). A.J. Croce has grown as a musician with each new release. He comes to Michigan with a new album, "Twelve Tales," that was recorded in Nashville with a team of producers that included the late Cowboy Jack Clement and New Orleans funk master Allen Toussaint, and he did a tremendous opening set at The Ark for Arlo Guthrie last spring.