Neighborhood House will rock Saturday night to full swing band with many horns
Rainbow Room's Timatha Kasten will headline Bar Harbor Music Festival event
NORTHEAST HARBOR, July 11, 2025 - The last time I danced to a live swing band in Maine was on the porch of the Asticou Inn in August 1984.
I was on vacation with my wife and we happened upon the weekly Thursday night event.
An octogenarian at the table next to us asked me, “Will you dance with me? My husband no longer dances.”
In minutes she was whipping me around the floor like I was the end of a yo-yo.
“What do you do?” she asked.
“ I work for the Boston Globe.”
“Oh, do you know my son-in-law Billy Taylor?”
I WAS DANCING WITH THE MOTHER-IN-LAW OF GLOBE PUBLISHER BILL TAYLOR, MY UBER BOSS, ON THE PORCH AT THE ASTICOU!
I was spent after 20 minutes and my partner went to hunt for fresh prey.
Thirty-nine years later, an opportunity to reprise that evening comes to the Neighborhood House Saturday night.
Manhattan’s Rainbow Room regular Timatha Kasten will be the headliner. I met her in Manhattan at the Bar Harbor Music Festival’s winter fund-raising event in April.
She will perform with Shane Ellis’ band, “Swingin’ Overtime” and guitarist Ryan Blotnick.
Other musicians include:
Brian Nadeau on trumpet
Nick Turner also on trumpet
Jim Winters on trombone
Dan Granholm, former music director at MDI High, on trombone
Jesse Beckett-Herbert on tenor sax
Beau Lisy on drums
Clifford Cameron on piano
Shane Ellis, who runs a Ellis Boats in Southwest Harbor, will play the alto sax
Free dance lesson from David Lamon will start at 7. The band will start at 7:30.
Expect many tunes from the Great American Songbook. You may purchase tickets in advance.