Gerry Timlin
In the Delaware Valley, his name is synonymous with Irish music, but what’s got Gerry Timlin really excited right now is an Italian guy who plays jazz. Not just any old guy—Vince Giordano and his 11-piece orchestra the Nighthawks, Grammy winners for their soundtrack for HBO’s hit series, Boardwalk Empire.
“He is fabulous, just fabulous,” says Timlin, who until about two years ago was owner of The Shanachie Restaurant and Pub in Ambler and is one of the movers and shakers behind the Ambler Arts and Music Festival, scheduled for June 14-15, on the borough’s main drag, Butler Avenue.
Giordano is the headliner for the two-day festival and he is quite a get. Giordano and the Nighthawks play twice a week at Sofia’s Restaurant, near the Edison Hotel in New York’s Times Square, but they headline away gigs like the Newport Jazz Festival, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Giordano and the band have also played on more than half a dozen Woody Allen soundtracks, in Francis Ford Coppola’s film, “The Cotton Club,” Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator,” and Sam Mendes’ film, “Revolutionary Road, as well as two other HBO presentations, “Grey Gardens” and “Mildred Pierce.”
It’s part of an eclectic mix of performers who will occupy two stages among vendors beer gardens, and art exhibits, including local favorites, rocker Tommy Conwell, the country-western band, 309 Express, singer-songwriter Craig Bickhardt, the McKendry Brothers, the King Brothers, party band Doc Freeman, cover band BKWG, and Jersey Shore favorites, Secret Service Band. The Trammps (“Disco Inferno”) will close out Saturday night with some R & B.
If you’re a former Shanachie denizen, you know Bickhardt, the McKendrys and the King Brothers as regulars at Timlin’s musical pub and you’re likely to hear at least some Irish music. “But the idea was to make it all-inclusive,” says Timlin, who still performs regularly solo and with partner of 40 years, Tom Kane, at Irish music venues on the East Coast.
Though Ambler has had an arts festival, this is the first year that music will be side-by-side with fine art, pottery, and jewelry makers. Timlin volunteered to help add the musical notes. “I thought this was something that could really help Ambler and I kept looking as my blueprint Bethlehem at what Musikfest and Celtic Fest have done for the Lehigh Valley.”
Most of the festival is free. Only the Giordano concert, which is being held at the Ambler Theater, is ticketed ($45). Parking is cheap ($5 no matter how long you stay). And some of Ambler’s best restaurants—and there are many—will be selling food street-fair style along with outdoor table service.
For more information, check out the festival website.
