Chapin's Life, Work Honored at Family Concert

It’s been 30 years since singer and activist Harry Chapin was killed in a car accident on the Long Island Expressway, but his legacy continues.

In a concert Saturday night at on the stage named in his honor, Chapin’s family and friends lifted up his memory in song and deed, collecting food for area hungry through Long Island Cares, the food bank he founded a year before his death.

A capacity hometown crowd filled the lawn in front of the Chapin Rainbow Stage on a beautiful summer evening to celebrate his life and honor his untiring efforts to end hunger. Chapin, 38, was scheduled to perform in a concert in Eisenhower Park the day he was killed in a car crash on the LIE on July 16, 1981. A concert will be held at Eisenhower on Monday evening.

The haunting strains of "Cat's in the Cradle" and "Taxi," two of Chapin's biggest hits, drifted over the moonlit park, along with songs by his brothers and nieces. The audience was up and participating on the more raucous "30,000 Pounds of Bananas." It was enlivened with commentary by his brother, Tom Chapin, who said he drew the short straw in having to sing it since it was the longest of his brother's long songs. "And it still sucks, Harry," he said.

Jen Chapin, Harry's daughter, sang several numbers and talked about her father's dedication to fighting hunger. "For me, so much remembering of my dad, remembering Harry, is good," she told the crowd. "But Harry would be outraged that there is still a debate about fundamental justice for people. We can't forget that all this," as she gestured around the stage, audience and booths set up to collect food donations, "should not be necessary. Sometimes, things need to be redistributed."

The daughters of Tom Chapin, Lily and Abigail Chapin, who make up The Chapin Sisters, and their sister Jessica sang several songs solo and with the group. Their voices blended wonderfully, with harmonies soaring, especially on the bluesy "Let Me Go."

The Chapin family will be playing together again in Tarrytown on Oct. 16, Tom Chapin announced, and he also urged fans to listen to Harry Chapin's songs at www.harrychapinradio.com.

The concert was part of the town's Summer Arts Festival as well one of a series of events in Chapin's honor, dubbed Legacy 30 Week. A sponsor of the evening, NBTY, the vitamin and supplement manufacturer formerly known as Nature's Bounty, donated $100,000 to Long Island Cares, increasing its matching donation after the food bank was able to raise more than $50,000 in a challenge.

Charlie Kruger of Florida and Coram remembers singing "Circle" onstage with Chapin when he performed in Queens, and seeing his concerts in Central Park and at Huntington High School. "I loved him, he was the best," Kruger said. His wife, Ellen, liked the performance as well as the evening’s message, although, she said, "I would have preferred to hear more of Harry’s songs."