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“Just Wild About Harry” Chapin Tribute Concert
July 21
Annual Harry Chapin Tribute Concert Moves to Huntington’s Heckscher Park, July 21
The annual “Just Wild About Harry” Chapin tribute concert performed by Long Island songwriters and original bands will have a new venue this year: The Chapin Rainbow Stage in Huntington’s Heckscher Park, located off Main Street (Route 25A) and Prime Avenue. The free concert is slated for Sunday, July 21, at 7 p.m. 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. “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,” 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 Karen Bella; John Cardone; Mike Christian; Robin Eve; Roger Street Friedman; Grand Folk Railroad; Robin Greenstein; Mara Levine; Vicky Liotta; Debra Lynne & Lora Kendall; Media Crime; Judy Merrick; Miles & Mafale; Matthew Ponsot; Patricia Shih & Stephen Fricker; Roger Silverberg; Talya Smilowitz; Christine Solimeno; Hank Stone; Martha Trachtenberg; Frank Walker; Lisa Ann Wharton & Akiva the Believer; 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.
The Huntington Summer Arts Festival is produced by the Town of Huntington and presented by the Huntington Arts Council. Presenting Sponsor Canon U.S.A. provides 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 (BID).
If you 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, log on earlier since there may be a few pre-show interviews with performing artists and members of the Chapin family.