‘Just Wild About Harry’ Chapin Tribute Concert to be Livestreamed, July 21

The annual “Just Wild About Harry” Chapin tribute concert performed by primarily Long Island-based artists has a new venue this year: The Chapin Rainbow Stage in Huntington, New York’s Heckscher Park, located off Main Street (Route 25A) and Prime Avenue. The free concert is slated for Sunday, July 21, 2024 at 7 p.m. ET and will also be livestreamed via a number of social media channels. Presented by the Huntington Arts Council, with promotional assistance from the Folk Music Society of Huntington, it is part of the 59th Huntington Summer Arts Festival produced by the Town of Huntington.

“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 and emcee. “Harry is still held in such beloved regard by residents of the town and public officials at all levels.”

Eighteen acts — comprised of nearly three dozen of Long Island’s top musicians and songwriters — will take to the stage that bears his 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” (which topped the charts in December 1974), 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.

“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,” he added.

“We’re very excited that the annual Just Wild About Harry concert is being held at Heckscher Park in Huntington this year,” said Paule Pachter, President & CEO of Long Island Cares, Inc. “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. 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 Akiva the Believer, Karen Bella, John Cardone, Roger Street Friedman, Grand Folk Railroad, Robin Greenstein, Lora Kendall, Mara Levine, Vicky Liotta, Debra Lynne & Lora Kendall, Media Crime, Judy Merrick, Miles & Mafale, Matthew Ponsot, Patricia Shih & Stephen Fricker, Robin Eve, Roger Silverberg, Talya Smilowitz, Christine Solimeno, Hank Stone, Martha Trachtenberg, Frank Walker, Lisa Ann Wharton, and Judith Zweiman & Duane Michael Tucker. Jen Chapin, Harry’s daughter and a touring artist in her own right, also will perform.

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.

Where to View the ‘Just Wild About Harry’ Concert Online

For those are unable to attend the concert in-person, it will also be livestreamed via a number of social media channels that follow. Although the concert is set for 7 p.m. ET, viewers are advised to log on earlier since there may be a few pre-show interviews with performing artists and members of the Chapin family.

Harry Chapin Fans Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/events/954037953400184/

Harry Chapin Foundation YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/live/dFZjPTrpqLo

Harry Chapin Foundation Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/488328867019092/

Harry Chapin Memories Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/events/835691325191299/

Harry Chapin Music Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/812448574320945/

Hey Long Island, Do You Remember…? Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/events/889951243173302/

I Grew Up in Huntington Township NY USA 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/events/1731745810691338/

Just Wild About Harry (The Harry Chapin Tribute Show) Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/events/1495851031039195/

L.I. Fans & Friends of Folk Music Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/events/1029824552128240/

Long Island Cares Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1604518290389306/

Long Live Harry Chapin Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/events/849747593717608/

Editor’s Note: A public relations and strategic communications professional, as well as the longtime president of the Folk Music Society of Huntington, I have been helping to promote the annual “Just Wild About Harry” tribute concerts pro bono for many years.

I first met Harry Chapin some 50 years ago at a Long Island rally for the United Farm Workers during the lettuce and grape boycott of the early 1970s. I was 12 years-old at the time, and I remember joining hands with him and Richard Chavez (brother of the late UFW leader Caesar Chavez) as we marched, chanted and sang. Several years later, Harry led the winning delegate slate for the late Rep. Mo Udall in the 1976 Democratic Presidential primary in my Congressional district, while my late dad coordinated the campaign. Over the next few years, I saw Harry many times — in concert, at various events, and around town with his wife, Sandy. While studying abroad and working in the British House of Commons, I was Harry’s guest at what turned out to be his last concerts in London, England in February 1981. He was in top form, and I had looked forward to seeing him again that July 16 in concert at Eisenhower Park here on Long Island. Tragically, Harry died in an auto accident on the Long Island Expressway while en route there. He was just 38 and has now been gone for longer than he lived.

I still have fond memories of Harry’s concerts. Yet as much as I appreciated him as a singer-songwriter who helped to forge my love of folk and folk-rock music, I so respected him for his activism, his community involvement, and his commitment to making this “A Better Place to Be.”