Bergenfield's Howard Fields recounts days with Harry Chapin ahead of BergenPAC show

BERGENFIELD — Howard Fields, a drummer who played alongside the late musician and philanthropist Harry Chapin for much of his career, will take the stage at Bergen PAC next month with the Harry Chapin Band, as part of the Chapin Family Show.

For Fields, 73, the concert is a welcome reunion with longtime friends and a chance to play close to home. The Bergenfield resident tours with the band — made up largely of old bandmates and members of Chapin’s family — several times a year, playing about a dozen shows.

“Playing on stage with these very good musicians who were also my friends — now I’ve known them for more than half a lifetime — it was the most fun I’ve ever had in my life,” he said. “It’s nice to be doing it on some level again. We don’t play as many shows these days, but it is very reminiscent of what we used to do.”

Growing up in Brooklyn in the 1960s, Fields was inspired by bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Kinks. At 14, he took drum lessons and played in bands at every venue they could, from church dances to block parties.

“It was all I could think about really,” he said. “I used to go to concerts at the Filmore East, sit there and watch these bands and think to myself, I can’t imagine not doing this. I wanted so much to play in theaters in front of people so badly.”

Fields was playing with different bands after graduating from Long Island University with a degree in music when he heard of an opportunity to play with Harry Chapin. By 1975 the folk-rock musician had already recorded four albums, including the hit "Verities and Balderdash," which featured the No. 1 song "Cat's in the Cradle," when he decided to write and perform a Broadway play based on his music.

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The play, “The Night That Made America Famous,” needed a drummer, and Fields auditioned and got the job.

“It was quite an experience. I had been to a few Broadway shows in my life and here I was on stage,” he said. “My mom and dad couldn’t have been prouder.”

The show ran for six weeks, and when the run was over, Chapin asked Fields to join the band as drummer, something the group had never had before.

The band played sold out shows across the country and toured in England, Scotland and Ireland about once a year.

“I was doing what I always dreamt of doing — playing in different theaters in different cities,” he said. “It was the greatest thing.”

Everything changed, though, when Chapin died at age 38 in a car crash in 1981. The band was set to play a benefit concert in Chapin’s hometown of Huntington, New York, when Fields and the other band members learned of the fiery crash on the Long Island Expressway.

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They made their way to the concert site, Eisenhower Park, where several hundred people had already gathered near the stage.

“People were already starting to fill in the lawn,” Fields remembered. “The concert promoter made the announcement to the crowd. It was just a dreadful day.”

After the crash, the members of the band all went in different directions. Fields made ends meet by teaching, offering private drum lessons and playing gigs here and there.

Eventually, some of the band members started doing Harry Chapin memorial shows, and in the early 90s, singer-songwriter Steve Chapin, Harry Chapin’s brother, approached Fields and bassist John Wallace about playing shows featuring Harry Chapin’s music and his own.

As time went on, these tribute shows with “The Chapin Family” included the members of Chapin’s band, Clark Wallace, Chapin’s brothers Tom and Steve Chapin, Tom's daughters Abigail and Lily Chapin, and Harry's daughter Jen Chapin, with Stephan Crump and Jamie Fox as the Jen Chapin Trio. The band has recently added a cellist, Arlen Hlusko.

The Chapin Family Show will play at Bergen PAC in Englewood on May 15 at 7 p.m. Tickets range from $29 to $89 and are on sale at bergenpac.org. The band will also perform at the State Theater in New Brunswick on May 16 and at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, Pennsylvania, on May 17.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bergenfield's Howard Fields recounts drumming days with Harry Chapin