Nearly three dozen of Long Island’s top musicians and songwriters will take to the stage at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow to perform the music of Harry Chapin, the late Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and social activist, on Monday night, July 18 at 7:15 p.m.
The concert will also be livestreamed on the Just Wild About Harry (The Harry Chapin Tribute Show) Facebook page and available for later viewing. This year’s concert, the 19th annual and 17th at the park, will mark the 50th anniversary of the release of Chapin’s breakout hit “Taxi.”
The Just Wild About Harry tribute concert will feature 16 acts — including concert organizer Stuart Markus and his trio Gathering Time — performing such Chapin classics as “Taxi” and “Cat’s in the Cradle” plus lesser hits and fan favorites like “Shooting Star” and “Story of a Life.” The concert is free, but concertgoers are asked to bring donations of nonperishable food to support Long Island Cares, Inc., the regional food bank founded by Chapin in 1980.
This will be two days after the 41st 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 so beloved in memory on Long Island,” Markus said. “You don’t have to look too hard to find someone who met him, whose school he did a benefit for, or someone who’s been helped by one of his charities. It’s so meaningful for the music community to come together and, in effect, do the concert he might have given. Each act is encouraged to do their own interpretation of the song they do,” Markus added. “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.
Besides Markus and Gathering Time, this year’s roster of performers includes newcomers JD Leonard and the Famous Dr. Scanlon Band, along with returning performers Roger Street Friedman, Frank Walker, Patricia Shih & Stephen Fricker, Robinson Treacher, Debra Lynne & Lora Kendall, Joe Iadanza, MediaCrime, Judith Zweiman, Martha Trachtenberg, Robin Greenstein, Christine Solimeno, Grand Folk Railroad, and Russ Seeger, plus assorted side musicians.
Also appearing will be the ensemble called Will Sing for Food, of which Pachter is a vocalist; it exists solely to do food drives and fundraisers for Long Island Cares.
The concert will be held rain or shine, precluded only by thunderstorms. For more information, visit https://www.nassaucountyny.gov/1767/Parks-Recreation-Museums.