February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
“It’s 90 minutes of basically my music,” the native New Yorker said of his July 27 gig at the Triad Theatre in Manhattan.
McGlone, who’s also appeared in the CBS drama “That’s Life,” has written four novels. He also spends time on potential film and television projects.
“Just day to day, it defines itself as what’s necessary to do and what to pay attention to,” he said of his balancing act. “If there is a show coming up, a lot of my energy is going into the rehearsals and the orchestration of all the details of it. So, it’s really just a flow and I go with it, not against it, and things have turned out quite well.”
Despite his hectic schedule, the nice-guy artist, who counts F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and William Kennedy among his literary influences, said he doesn’t plan to give up any of his pursuits.
“I do, indeed, intend to continue doing all of them, because my passion is equal for different reasons,” he said. “There’s nothing quite like writing a song that you’re particularly proud of or performing a song that is either new or old and moving to you, and there’s also nothing quite like a marvelous day of writing, or completing a short story or a novel or being in a film or going to a premiere or being on stage in a play. There all these spiritual and emotional releases to them that feed me in unique and magnificent ways.”
Growing up in an Irish family, the middle of three brothers, McGlone said he was always looking to snatch a moment in the limelight. What set him apart from other attention-seeking kids, he noted, was the regularity with which he would announce himself and perform.
“When I was 7 years old, my father sat me down and said, ‘Now you’re going to listen to the King of Rock and Roll,’ and he put on Elvis’s ‘Golden Hits’ and I listened to ‘Hound Dog’ and I absolutely fell in love with the music and Elvis’s voice and his persona,” McGlone said. “As a little boy, from that point on, I would regularly go into the bathroom and slick my hair back, like Elvis on the cover of ‘Golden Hits,’ and sing ‘Hound Dog’ into a brush. “I’ve been so fortunate to discover these talents and desires that I have had and to be enabled the experience to develop them and enjoy them regularly and it’s been a joy.”
McGlone said he is grateful for his tight-knit family and proud of his Irish heritage (he is three-quarters Irish) and credits them for his positive outlook on life and appreciation for all things artistic.
“I love what I conceive of as the Irish personality,” he said. “Very conversational, very outgoing, very public and very personal, very talkative and can be very emotional and very dramatic and very sensitive and also very musical and very appreciative of song and poetry and traditional values of fine art forms — whether it’s the writing of a play or the singing of ‘Danny Boy’ or the writing of ‘Dubliners.’ “
McGlone said he is particularly happy when making and Independent film like “The Brothers McMullen” or producing albums himself because of the creative freedom and individual expression they allow.
“Being of Irish descent, of course, the greater the sense of independence, at times, the more I thrive,” he said. “Because my desire to achieve things in the way I see fit is so strong, that where the greater latitude is for me is where the greater happiness is.”
So, any chance McGlone and Edward Burns might reunite for another film like “The Brothers McMullen,” one of the most successful independent
films of all time?
“I would love to and he and I have talked about that,” McGlone said. “It’s something that both of us savor the idea of and potential for and we’ll just see going forward what develops,” he said.
(Michael McGlone will perform in concert July 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Triad Theatre, 158 W. 72nd St., Manhattan.)