{"id":9978,"date":"2020-06-05T14:57:12","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T14:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/?p=9978"},"modified":"2020-07-13T17:24:52","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T17:24:52","slug":"tom-chapin-the-troubadour-of-the-hudson-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/spring-summer-2020\/tom-chapin-the-troubadour-of-the-hudson-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Chapin, The Troubadour of the Hudson Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMusicians Don\u2019t Retire; They Just Reload\u201d<\/p>\n

By Carolyn Worthington<\/p><\/p>\n

I<\/span>t was a sunny Friday afternoon in 1991 when I sat with my arms around my two sons, then 5 and 6 years old, in the front row of the Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut. We were weekly subscribers to the playhouse\u2019s children\u2019s theater where we saw children\u2019s plays such as Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, and then \u2026 Tom Chapin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Children’s Summer Season schedule featuring Tom Chapin, circa 2000<\/p><\/div>\n

The boys and I were wowed by Tom who became the highlight of the playhouse\u2019s children\u2019s series for us over several summers. We escaped the summer heat, sang along with Tom strumming his guitar in the restored-barn-turned-playhouse with its creaky wooden floors and the allure of ice cream after the show.<\/p>\n

The Westport Country Playhouse provided a special venue for the concerts. Built in 1835 as a tannery and a hatter\u2019s leather shop, the playhouse opened as a theater in 1931 with Dorothy Gish in The Streets of New York.<\/p>\n

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(Clockwise from top left) 1931 The Streets of New York Dorothy Gish and Rollo Peters; 1949 Come Back, Little Sheba premiered at The Playhouse staring Shirley Booth as Lola and Sidney Blackmer as Doc; 1969 Butterflies Are Free premiered at The Playhouse staring Blythe Danner who falls in love with a blind boy, played by Keir Dullea; 2006 Thurgood starring James Earl Jones.<\/p><\/div>\n

Although the history of the theater<\/a> may have been lost on my little boys, it was fun for me to listen to Tom in a building that had been graced with the talents of Burgess Meredith (Hide and Seek), Ruth Gordon (The Country Wife), Henry Fonda (The Virginian), James Earl Jones (Thurgood), and later Paul Newman (who directed Of Mice and Men) and his wife, Joanne Woodward (who directed The Constant Wife).<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t know a lot about Tom at first. But we soon became big fans. We bought Tom\u2019s albums on cassettes (remember those?) and listened to them in our Ford Explorer. My boys grew up on Tom\u2019s lyrics. (I did, too.)<\/p>\n

\u201cLibrary Song<\/a>,\u201d \u201cParade Came Marching,\u201d \u201cLong Way Home,\u201d and \u201cBig Rock Candy Mountain\u201d were all some of our favorites.<\/p>\n

Tom\u2019s song \u201cShoveling\u201d made us laugh and was all so true.<\/p>\n

We loved snow days, and the little boy who wanted to play in the snow while his father was busy shoveling sounded like our boys.<\/p>\n