For over 25 years the Harry Chapin Band has delighted fans of Harry’s music with it’s stunning portrayals of the songwriter’s most loved songs (Taxi, Cat’s In The Cradle, WOLD, Mr. Tanner, Mail Order Annie, etc). Steve Chapin and Big John Wallace have been making music together since 1955 beginning in Brooklyn NY’s Grace Church Boy's Choir, which is also where Big John and Harry would meet. Consequently, in 1971, John became a founding member of Harry’s original four-piece band which spawned the classic song “Taxi”.
That band recorded four LPs and enjoyed much concert success leading up to 1974 and the #1 hit record “Cat’s In The Cradle”. It was at that time that Harry decided to try something completely different in the form of a Broadway show (“The Night That Made America Famous”) which was based on his music. Brother Steve was brought in as musical director and put together a band for the show that included Doug Walker, who he had met in 1966 when performing with Harry & brother Tom in their band The Chapin Brothers. Drummer Howard Fields, who had been playing in a group with Doug in 1973, was also chosen to play in the band for that Broadway show which ran for 6 weeks in the spring of 1975. At that time, Steve, Doug, & Howard were added to Harry’s touring band and, beginning on March 31, 1975, they performed over 900 shows throughout North America and Europe until Harry’s untimely passing in 1981.
In the mid 90s, Steve, Big John, and Howard formed The Steve Chapin Band (now renamed The Harry Chapin Band) in an effort to perform and keep Harry’s music alive. In recent years, Big John’s son Clark was added to the band on guitar giving greater musical latitude to both Harry’s and Steve’s tunes. And, the most recent addition in 2017 was Doug Walker on guitar. The Harry Chapin Band’s re-creations of Harry’s ‘story-songs’ provide a stirring musical tribute to both the legions of Chapin fans who attended their concerts some 30-40 years ago, and the flourishing next-generation of Chapin enthusiasts.