Chapin fans: In an effort to make this an interactive website, I invite you to e-mail me your memories of any Chapin experiences that relate to the extensive list of concerts, recordings, TV shows, etc that I address here at "Harry Chapin: The Howie Fields Years". Those events could not have happened without you...Harry's dedicated fans, so please feel free to impart your thoughts to me with the understanding that your memories may be posted on the site (the writer will be identified by first name, and city of residence only).

Click Here to read the stories.

E-mail me at hf.rockpaper@verizon.net

I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks.....Howard



I briefly met Harry early in 1981 at Huntington High School. I was a few weeks shy of turning 14 & was just 2 years into developing as a guitarist/songwriter, where my 2 biggest influences were the Beatles & Harry. My uncle took my brother and I to see a benefit concert there where he, his brother Tom, and Pete Seeger sat together playing each other's songs for at least 3 hours. It made an incredible impact on me as a person and musician. Their generosity & their musicianship sealed it for me. They made you feel like they were your friends playing in your living room rather than a proper concert in a theater. I knew I wanted this for my own life.

A few months later, I was getting ready to go to Eisenhower Park on July 16, 1981, and was completing a poster-sized drawing of Harry to give to him that night, when we heard the news on TV about his car accident. My uncle took me there later that night anyway and everyone was just standing around laughing, crying, singing, playing, but all celebrating him in various ways.

I put the poster I made down against the small brick wall in front of the stage and after walking around a while, came back and found the poster surrounded by candles in a shrine-like setting. The poster was featured on a local TV news station that night and it became my indirect way of paying tribute to and thanking him for what he gave me at the time.

- Frank, Hicksville NY



Your entry for 12 February 1981 says Leeds Polytechnic. The concert was definitely in the Riley Smith Hall at Leeds University, not the Polytechnic. It was a small hall with the audience sat on the (hard) floor. I clearly remember the intimacy of the gig with Harry's two children watching from the side of the stage. He finished by walking through the audience (still singing Circle) with Josh on his shoulders to the merchandise table at the back of the hall.

- Keith, Tadcaster ENG



I found your website today, and I am delighted you are helping so many to remember Harry's music--and yours! You all touched my life growing up and continue to do so.

I had the good fortune to attend three Chapin shows in Knoxville and Atlanta, including the May 1978 Knoxville, TN, show that featured the "Legends of the Lost and Found" live recording of "Corey's Coming." I have a particular bias, as you might imagine, but I think that performance is a crystalline moment of musical perfection. I'm also fond of "Odd Job Man" for a wholly different reason (there was some good drumming in that one, as I recall).

I have practiced law for many years, but put it aside this year to work for a Democratic campaign for the US Senate. I finally heeded Harry's advice to DO SOMETHING.

- Tom, Knoxville TN



I can't believe that I stumbled onto your site. On Feb 26th, 1977 I attended the concert at Fairleigh Dickinson U. in Rutherford, NJ. I will never forget it - it was awsome. My life was full of issues in those days and Harry pulled me through many of them. Harry's music and especially his love for his fellow man was and is a huge influence in my life. I try now to do as Harry said - keep company with those who are committed to doing good for others.

PS: My daughter's name is Cory !

- Brian, Bloomfield NJ