Do songs still have the power to sway people?
Tom Chapin thinks so.
“I remember hearing Harold Leventhal, the great manager of the Weavers and Pete Seeger. He used to say, ‘When times get bad, Pete’s career soars.’ He was talking about the working man, and real people going through real stuff. I’m finding that in a smaller way myself,” said Chapin, who headlines at The Minstrel in Morris Township this Friday, July 21, 2017.
“Songs you never thought were particularly political — a song about Ellis Island and our ancestors who all went through– you sing that song, and suddenly it has a huge emotional kick, because of what we’re facing as citizens,” he said.
Chapin, 72, can draw from a vast repertoire for his Minstrel solo concert.
Over the last half- century he has starred on Broadway (Pump Boys and Dinettes), hosted TV shows (Make a Wish; Blue Water, White Death; National Geographic Explorer), and released 25 albums for kids and grownups.
His newest CD, Threads, is just that: A tapestry woven from disparate strands of history, family, and current events.
There is a bluesy rant about the rapacity of music streaming services, and a disarmingly upbeat lament that strives to end industries that mint Money Out of Misery.
Chapin pays tribute to the late suffragette Dorothy Day, who had a fling with his great-uncle; and to Julia Ward Howe, composer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic and advocate for a Mother’s Day for peace. He slips in sentimental reflections on the joys of grandchildren, and dusts off an overlooked chestnut by his late brother, Harry Chapin.
The album ends with We Will Not Stop, by Tom Chapin’s daughters, Abigail and Lily, who vow to keep singing and marching and chanting until the whole world is free to join in.
Chapin cannot predict whether The Chapin Sisters have penned this generation’s We Shall Overcome; the proud papa just loves singing it.
“It’s very positive and very strong. It’s a song for this moment, when a lot of things that we believe in are being really threatened from on high. So for me, it’s an emotional and powerful song. And then to hear them sing it–whoa!–the world goes into Technicolor!”
You may think a sing-along is just a silly game
And believing it can change the world is really kind of lame.
But ‘We Shall Overcome’ finally overcame,
’cause everybody sang along.—Broadside, by Tom Chapin & John Forster
Chapin still chokes up occasionally when singing tunes by Harry, who died in a July 1981 crash while driving to a concert on Long Island.
“Sometimes I’m singing Cat’s in the Cradle and I suddenly go, ‘Whoa, where are you, man?’ ….I mourned, and I still once in awhile mourn his death, and the loss of what he might have done in the last 36 years,” Chapin said.
Mostly, he remembers Harry with pride, both for his storytelling genius (“Cat’s in the Cradle is going to be sung as long people sing songs”) and for his foundations, WhyHunger and Long Island Cares.
“The good news is, those organizations are doing great, great work. The bad news is, it’s needed so much still,” said Chapin, who started in a trio with Harry and their kid brother Steve.
Steve Chapin and Big John Wallace, Harry’s longtime bass player and backup singer (the high voice in Taxi, the low voice in Mr. Tanner), appear on the new album in Any Old Kind of Day, a Harry Chapin song inspired by Bob Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man.
Tom Chapin won’t have these guys with him on Friday, but that won’t prevent him from sharing some of the new material. He’s an old friend of Minstrel Program Director Mike Agranoff, and has played the Minstrel before.
“It’s just a great folk audience. They are steeped in the world that I’m steeped in, so it’s really fun. And I can bring new stuff to them, and they’re open and interested. I’m looking forward to it,” said Chapin, who spent boyhood summers in Andover, NJ, and now resides in the Hudson Valley.
Don’t be surprised if you hear a few family tales, too. Chapin is the son of jazz drummer Jim Chapin, grandson of author/critic Kenneth Burke and portrait painter James Chapin, and fifth cousin of singer Mary Chapin Carpenter.
And expect a dash of whimsy from a man who has enlivened car trips for countless families with lyrics like this:
A stegosaurus in the forest, munching on some hay
Lay down to snooze in a bed of ooze, and sadly passed away.
Her body changed and re-arranged as she sank beneath the soil,
And over time, she turned to slime, and then she turned to oil.
Folk music provides a template — storyline verses, sing-along choruses–for communicating with anyone from 6 to 96, according to Chapin. Be clear, be interesting, and this conversation can transcend words, he said.
“Music is not a speech, it’s not polemic. We’re so used to so many words flying at us. But it goes in a different place with the music.
“It’s the reason autistic kids really respond to music. You go to a funeral, and people are talking and talking. And someone gets up and sings a song or does a dance or plays a piece of music, and all of a sudden everybody’s crying,” Chapin said.
Music sidesteps our language filters, honed to help us cope with 24-hour news cycles and ad bombardments, “and touches your heart.
“I feel blessed to be a purveyor of that,” Chapin continued. “I’m not saying that I’m magical. But the process is magical.”
Knock on wood, that magic will continue for a long time.
“Folks like me do not retire. We just reload,” Chapin said, with a hearty laugh.
Tom Chapin performs at 7:30 pm on July 21, 2017, at the Folk Project’s Minstrel series, in the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship, 21 Normandy Heights Road, Morris Township. With opener Butch Ross, who’s been known to tease Led Zeppelin favorites from his Appalachian dulcimer. Admission: $10; children 12 and under, free.
