“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.

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 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.”

Prior to the evening concert on the park’s [Harry] Chapin Rainbow Stage, Michael Kornfeld, president of the Folk Music Society of Huntington and editor & publisher of AcousticMusicScene.com , conducts an on-stage conversational interview with the evening’s featured artists at 7:15 p.m. He also hosts a series of amplified showcases and song swaps from 2-5 p.m. near a canopy tent on the upper lawn area overlooking the stage. These will be preceded by an hour-long open mic hosted by singer-songwriter Toby Tobias, who runs the NorthShore Original Open Mic (NOOM), an Acoustic Ally of FMSH, from 12-1 p.m. and Remembering Lois Morton: A Musical Tribute from 1-2 p.m.

From 1-2 p.m, a number of artists will perform and share their reflections on Lois Morton, the late Huntington-based singer-songwriter who delighted audiences throughout the New York metropolitan area and beyond for years with her abundant charm and humorous songs of social commentary on such subjects as cell phones, clutter, diets, psychotherapy, and road rage. Participants in this tribute will include Josie Bello, Kirsten Maxwell, Larry Moser, Richard Parr, Glen Roethel, Dave Anthony Setteducati, Linda Sussman, and others. Here’s a link to a remembrance piece about Lois Morton: https://acousticmusicscene.com/2020/12/20/lois-morton-a-witty-singer-songwriter-1933-2020/.

The complete schedule for the Huntington Folk Festival appears below:

12:00 Open Mic
1:00 Remembering Lois Morton: A Musical Tribute (performances and reflections by Josie Bello, Kirsten Maxwell, Larry Moser, Richard Parr, Glen Roethel, Dave Anthony Setteducati, Linda Sussman, and others)
2:00 Song Swap: Hank Stone and Bob Westcott
2:30 Us!
2:45 Drew Velting
3:00 Christine Sweeney
3:15 Brett Altman
3:30 Allison Leah
3:45 Sea Chanteys: The Royal Yard and Alan Short
4:15 Catherine Miles & Jay Mafale
4:30 The Levins
4:45 Scott Wolfson & Other Heroes
5:00 Dinner Break
7:15 On-Stage Conversation with Paula Cole and Sophie B. Hawkins
8:00 Evening Concert on the Chapin Rainbow Stage: Paula Cole & Sophie B. Hawkins

Festivalgoers 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).

Although the Huntington Folk Festival is free, attendees are asked to bring donations of nonperishable food to support Long Island Cares, Inc., the regional food bank founded by Harry Chapin. July 16 marks the 41st anniversary of the late Huntington-based singer-songwriter, social activist and humanitarian’s tragic death on the Long Island Expressway, while this year is the 50th anniversary of the release of Chapin’s breakout hit, “Taxi.”

The Huntington Summer Arts Festival is produced by the Town of Huntington and presented by the Huntington Arts Council. Additional support is provided by Presenting Sponsor Canon U.S.A., with partial funding from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning.

This year’s concert will be a special one since that week will mark the 40th anniversary of Chapin’s tragic death on the Long Island Expressway in 1981 — on the day that he was supposed to perform on that very stage, since renamed for him. Several tribute show regulars were among the crowd in 1981 when what was supposed to be a joyous event turned into a vigil, Markus said.

“Harry is still so lovingly regarded in Long Island songwriter circles, both for his songwriting and anti-hunger activism,” Markus said. “Each year, the community comes together to, in effect, present the concert that he might have given, each putting their own interpretation on his songs. We’ve had some amazing arrangements, from folky to country, torch-song style to hard rock.”


The concert will also be a benefit for Long Island Cares, the Harry Chapin Food Bank. “The annual Harry Chapin tribute concert in Eisenhower Park is always a very special event for all of us at Long Island Cares because so many of Harry’s fans attend and are extremely supportive of Long Island Cares and the work we do to assist the more than 316,000 Long Islanders struggling with domestic hunger and high food insecurity,” said Paule Pachter, the nonprofit organization’s chief executive officer.

The concert is being co-promoted by the Folk Music Society of Huntington, of which Markus is a board member. This year’s show will be the 16th at the park and the 18th overall. Last year’s tribute streamed online only due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Besides Markus and Gathering Time, this year’s roster of performers includes newcomers ThemAgain, Roger Street Friedman, and Richard Parr, along with returning performers Patricia Shih, Robinson Treacher, Debra Lynne, Media Crime, Ed Ryan, Sid Cherry & Helen Schrier Pandal, Toby Tobias, Mike Barry, Folk Goddesses, Robin Greenstein, and Christine Solimeno, plus assorted side musicians.
The concert, for which attendees are advised to bring lawn chairs, will be held rain or shine, precluded only by thunderstorms. For more information, visit https://www.nassaucountyny.gov/1767/Parks-Recreation-Museums.

Editor’s Note: I am president of the Folk Music Society of Huntington and have been helping to promote the annual “Just Wild About Harry” tribute concerts 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 somewhere, amid all my papers, is a newspaper photo of Harry clasping my hand and that of Richard Chavez, brother of the late UFW leader Cesar Chavez, that day. Over the course of the next decade, I saw Harry many times in concert, at various events, and around town with his wife, Sandy. While spending a college semester abroad in London, England during the winter and spring of 1981, I was Harry’s guest at what turned out to be his last concerts in England. I still have fond memories of Harry’s concerts. Yet as much as I appreciated Harry Chapin 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.” Harry’s story songs, social consciousness and concern for ordinary people were very much in keeping with the longstanding traditions of folk music and the spirit of the folk community.

As the credits roll at the end of the recent documentary Harry Chapin: When In Doubt Do Something, I can be seen briefly singing Harry’s song “Circle” — along with others, including Harry’s brother Tom and daughter Jen — near the stage that bears his name at Eisenhower Park.

Harry’s daughter Jen, his brothers Tom and Steve, his nieces The Chapin Sisters, members of his band, and others take part in “Harry Chapin: A Celebration in Song” on the Chapin Rainbow Stage at Huntington, New York’s Heckscher Park (located off Route 25A in Huntington Village) on the 16th at 8:30 p.m.. The concert — a collaborative effort of the Huntington Arts Council, Long Island Cares, the Folk Music Society of Huntington and the Town of Huntington — will be preceded by a re-dedication of the stage. Chapin and his family lived in Huntington Bay, and the troubadour and his wife, Sandy, were very active in the community.

On Monday, July 18, some two-dozen Long Island artists who are “Just Wild About Harry” will perform 18 of his story songs for a cause to which he dedicated himself — eradicating hunger — during a 7:30 p.m. concert at the Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre in East Meadow’s Eisenhower Park (located off Merrick and Stewart Avenues). Chapin, 38, died in a Long Island Expressway crash while en route to perform a free concert at the park. The annual concert there is organized by Stuart Markus, a Long Island-based singer-songwriter. Besides his folk harmony trio Gathering Time, artists slated to perform include Doc Butler & JC Cobb, Grand Folk Railroad, Josh Joffen, Kendall & Korb, Cecilia Kirtland & Robin Greenstein, Doug Kwartler, Debra Lynne & Chris Tursi, MediaCrime, Rough Folk, Ed Ryan, Russ Seeger, Patricia Shih, Christine Solimeno, Martha Trachtenberg, Frank Walker and Judith Zweiman.

Concertgoers are asked to bring their own chairs/blankets and canned goods for Long Island Cares – The Harry Chapin Food Bank to both free concerts. Long Island Cares is a nonprofit organization launched by Chapin the year before he died. While at the park concerts, attendees also will have an opportunity to pick up postcards to be sent to the U.S. Postal Service’s Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee expressing support for a commemorative stamp in honor of Harry Chapin. Postcards also may be obtained through Long Island Cares by contacting Michael Haynes at mhaynes [at] licares.org.

“Twenty-nine years after Harry Chapin’s death, the need to fight hunger is still as urgent as ever,” says Stuart Markus, a LI-based singer-songwriter who has been organizing Harry Chapin tribute concerts on Long Island for seven years. Although the Aug. 9 concert is free, guests are encouraged to bring canned goods and other non-perishable food items for distribution to needy Long Islanders through Long Island Cares, a food bank founded by Chapin in 1980 that works to relieve hunger on Long Island. Over the years, the concerts have raised about three tons of food and several thousand dollars for the nonprofit organization.

Chapin, who resided in Huntington Bay, was killed in a car accident on the Long Island Expressway on his way to perform a free concert at that same stage in July 1981. His music and his giving, community spirit have lived on, and the concert venue has been renamed the Harry Chapin Lakeside Stage in his honor.

This year’s concert will include a ceremony during which Long Island Cares Director Paule Pachter will present a special commemorative plaque to Nassau County for installation near the stage. Chapin’s widow, Sandy, and daughter Jen, herself a touring singer-songwriter, are expected to attend the 7 p.m. unveiling.

More than 3,000 people, on average, have attended the Eisenhower Park concerts during the past five years, according to Markus, who anticipates another good showing this year. Entitled “Just Wild About Harry,” the concert, set to begin at 7:30 p.m., will include 18 of Chapin’s story songs — ranging from hits like “Cat’s In the Cradle” and “Taxi” to lesser-known numbers like “Sunday Morning Sunshine” and “Jubilation.” Besides Markus, artists slated to perform include Hillary Foxsong, Joe Iadanza, Doc Butler & JC Cob, Lisa Itts, Josh Joffen, Debra Lynne & Chris Tursi, Russ Seeger, MediaCrime, Christine Solimeno, Frank Walker, Kenny Forgione, Hank Stone, Judith Zweiman, Martha Trachtenberg & Andy Huenerberg, Cecilia Kirtland, and Kendall & Korb.

In some cases the performers have chosen their own songs; in others Markus suggested them, but the performers have carte blanche with respect to interpretation. “The results have been some really creative treatments and performances,” adds Markus.

Guests should bring their own lawn chairs or picnic blankets to the park, which is located off Merrick and Stewart Avenues in East Meadow. The event is scheduled rain or shine, barring lightning storms. For more information about summer concerts and other events, call (516) 572-0200.