CHAPIN’S MUSIC -UNPLUGGED
An Acoustic Tribute To Harry Chapin and His Music
I’m always acquiring artists’ recordings. I recently just last week picked up a new 2017 CD, “Chapin’s Music Unplugged” an acoustic tribute by “Tommy C and The Tombstones” to the American 1970’s Folk-Rock Singer / Songwriter and champion of causes, the late Harry Chapin . Tragically Harry Chapin was killed in a car accident in 1981 when he was only 38 and at the pinnacle of success.
Artist Thomas Crean has been a fan of Harry Chapin for both his music and his humanitarianism. To celebrate the great storyteller’s legacy and music Thomas has recorded this incredible tribute with Kelly-Ann Crean and Nancy Herb and together are “Tommy C and The Tombstones” .
I met Thomas Crean at Shell Busey’s “Tool Box” in Cloverdale, British Columbia that is a new tool thrift store to raise money and awareness for the Surrey Hospice Society. Thomas is The President of The Board Of Directors at The Surrey Hospice.
“December 7th would have been Harry’s 75th birthday, and I wanted to get the CD out for what would have been Harry Chapin’s 75th Birthday” Thomas Crean said to me as he handed me the CD for making a donation.
Tommy C and The Tombstones’ tribute to Harry Chapin is so well produced and Thomas’s vocals could not be any closer to the originals which makes this recording a great honour to The Music of Harry Chapin. Kelly-Ann Crean and Nancy Herb’s accompanying vocals blend together beautifully.
Once I put the CD on I was taken back to the first time I had heard some of these songs and the familiar memories came back. “Cats In The Cradle” took me back to my own childhood and how I witnessed my father work to take care of his family of 6 kids and keep a roof over our heads.. I always tear up because so much is true, more today than when I was first on my own and then raising my own family… Harry Chapin could not have told the story any better… as we get busier we seem to fall behind with family connections and before you know it you lose someone close and regrets happen.
During my own stint in The Royal Canadian Navy in the 1980’s there was a fellow engineer that would play his guitar and sing to us in the Engineers Mess aboard HMCS Athabaskan while we were on deployment somewhere in the world… “Cats In The Cradle” was one of the favorites
Thomas Crean, “Tommy C and The Tombstones” have the passion and magic in this tribute collection of Harry Chapin’s greatest hits. The stories just flowed through each song and when the CD was over I had to play it again. All I could think was
“what a great Tribute”!
Harry Chapin was involved with many groups in need. These included a campaign against world hunger, environmental and consumer issues and the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation. At one time, more than half his concerts were benefits. The “Harry Chapin Foundation” is a posthumous legacy of his desire to help those in need.
”I think I’ve had the most social and political involvement of any singer-song writer in America,” Mr. Chapin was quoted as having said.
Harry Chapin, lived December 7th 1942 to July 16th 1981 was a story teller through his music. His stories live on with Tommy C and The Tombstones Tribute “ Chapin’s Music – Unplugged”
Paul Fitzgerald
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