HUNTINGTON, NY — The annual “Just Wild About Harry” Chapin tribute concert is scheduled for 7 p.m. July 21 at a new, but quite fitting, venue: the Chapin Rainbow Stage in Huntington’s Heckscher Park.
Long Island songwriters and original bands will take the stage in the park, located off Main Street and Prime Avenue. The concert is free.
“I’ve long thought it would be wonderful and extremely appropriate to do the show in Huntington, where Harry and Sandy lived and raised their family,” said Stuart Markus, the concert’s organizer, in a news release. “Harry is still held in such beloved regard by residents of the town and public officials at all levels.”
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Eighteen acts — comprised of nearly three dozen of Long Island’s top musicians and songwriters — will take to the stage that bears Chapin’s name to honor the late Grammy Award-winning songwriter, humanitarian and anti-hunger activist. They’ll perform his breakthrough hit, “Taxi,” his best-known song “Cat’s in the Cradle,” fan favorites like “Flowers Are Red” and “Mr. Tanner,” and some of Chapin’s more obscure songs as well.
Concertgoers are asked to bring donations of nonperishable food to support Long Island Cares, Inc., the regional food bank founded by Chapin in 1980.
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“All the performers are pro-caliber full-time and part-time musicians who perform regularly at local venues and/or tour on the folk circuit,” Markus said. “Throughout the two decades that we’ve been presenting the show, I’ve always encouraged them to treat the songs as their own — however they imagine them. The results have been some very creative interpretations.”
Paule Pachter, president and CEO of Long Island Cares, said he is very excited that the annual Just Wild About Harry concert is being held at Heckscher Park in Huntington this year.
“This event has been held for the past two decades to support Long Island Cares and it’s raised more than a half-million pounds of food and thousands of dollars in donations to support The Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank,” Pachter said. “It’s very meaningful that the concert will take place on The Chapin Rainbow Stage, and our volunteers and staff are looking forward to being there with the talented musicians that have kept Harry Chapin’s legacy alive for all these years.”
Besides Markus and his folk-rock harmony trio Gathering Time, this year’s roster of performers includes Karen Bella, Roger Street Friedman, Grand Folk Railroad, Robin Greenstein, Mara Levine, Debra Lynne & Lora Kendal, Media Crime, Matthew Ponsot, Patricia Shih & Stephen Fricker, Talya Smilowitz, Christine Solimeno, Hank Stone, Martha Trachtenberg, Robinson Treacher, Frank Walker, Lisa & Akiva Wharton, and Judith Zweiman & Duane Michael Tucker.
Jen Chapin, Harry’s daughter and a touring artist in her own right, also will perform.
Jason Chapin, Harry’s son, called it an “amazing tribute” that the Harry Chapin Rainbow Stage was named after his father.
“There have been many Harry Chapin tribute concerts with family musicians there so it’s a special place and experience for me and my family,” Jason told Patch. “I’m very grateful to the Huntington Arts Council for making it possible for the ‘Just Wild About Harry’ tribute concert to be in our hometown this year. I’m really looking forward to being there, seeing old friends and supporting the food drive for Long Island Cares. It’s going to be a great night!”
Long Island Cares’ staff and volunteers will be collecting donations of non-perishable food at a tent at the entrance to the Chapin Rainbow Stage and also selling t-shirts and Harry Chapin CDs, as well as distributing literature about the nonprofit organization’s programs and services.
Concertgoers are advised to bring lawn chairs and blankets and a picnic supper — or they can walk into Huntington Village and enjoy a meal at one of its many restaurants.
The Huntington Summer Arts Festival is produced by the Town of Huntington and presented by the Huntington Arts Council. The Folk Music Society of Huntington provided promotional aid. Presenting Sponsor Canon U.S.A. is providing additional support, along with partial funding from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning, and the Huntington Village Business Improvement District.
Patch has partnered with Feeding America since 2020 to help raise awareness in our local communities of hunger, a persistent national problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks and 60,000 local meals programs across the country, estimates that nearly 34 million people, including 9 million children — about 1 in 6 Americans — are living with food insecurity. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.
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