Just Like Medicine

A.J. CROCE and his producer, soul music legend, Dan Penn explore the healing power of music with Just Like Medicine, on Compass Records. A download card is included with the vinyl version.

An all-star cast including Steve Cropper, David Hood, Vince Gill, Colin Linden and the McCrary Sisters come together on Croce’s ninth studio album, which includes his first recording of “The Name of the Game,” an unreleased song by his father, Jim Croce.

As Croce explains, “I wanted to make a real soul album, but not a throwback Stax album or a Motown album or anything like that even though Dan was producing and there are great players from that world and Muscle Shoals on these tracks.” Sonically and in every other way, the intention on Just Like Medicine seems to keep things real.

“We recorded this album in mono, to analogue tape, primarily to two tracks and we never used more than sixteen tracks,” says Croce. “Dan explained that when he worked with the Box Tops, they only had like three tracks one for the band, one for the vocals, one for string and horns. So that became our starting point.” As one listen to Just Like Medicine confirms, that turned out to be an excellent place to start.