Call it the power of sibling rivalry, but John Gallagher reluctantly admits that he’ll be singing on stage and selling his first CD at Molly Maguire’s Restaurant and Pub in Phoenixville on Friday night, April 11, because his younger brother told him he “didn’t have the balls” to do it.
“My brother, Pat, and I were talking about art and writing,” explains Gallagher, an entrepreneur (he owns his own recruiting business) from Ardmore. “He told me I didn’t have the balls to do anything with it.” Pat Gallagher, also a recruiter, has launched a successful side career as a painter because he literally couldn’t stop “doodling,” as he called it. He was discovered in New York by an art dealer who saw him drawing in a bar and convinced him to pursue his talent.
“There’s always been a part of me that wanted to write and sing,” says John. He comes by it naturally. Both his parents, Donegal immigrants, sing; his uncle Vince Gallagher has his own band and an Irish radio show on WTMR. “I always sang for fun. After I decided I was not going to make it to the NBA, this is what my passion was.”
But, like many dreams, this one took a backseat to the practical. Gallagher needed to make a living. “I have my own company, I’m responsible for taking care of my family and my employees. I couldn’t focus on what I left behind. This is where my life took me,” he says like a man who was content with what seemed like fate.
Then, suddenly, fate laid out a slightly different path. A convergence of events—call it serendipity—sounded like a message from the universe to John Gallagher. His brother started painting and selling his work—without quitting his day job. He hired his first employee, Craig Newman, who had toured with the band, Sunflower. And his wife’s cousin is married to Patsy Ward, guitarist with the local Irish group Causeway. He, Craig, and Patsy started playing together as The Pointe. And John started writing songs.
“Last Memorial Day we went into the studio and this CD is what came out of that,” he says.
It’s called “The Other Side of the Tracks”—a reference to the fact that the Gallaghers grew up on the Main Line, but literally on the other side of the Reading line from its manicured mansions. One of the 11 songs, “Piece of Work,” is about John’s relationship with his brother, Pat. It has a distinctly country flavor and, despite the sibling rivalry that might have inspired it, it’s clearly about brotherly love. He’s already sung it a cappella at an open mike night. And he’ll be singing it Friday night at Molly Maguire’s.
“We’ll see how we’re received,” Gallagher says, his voice reflecting that same “what will be will be” attitude that guided his career. “I’m not really thinking about where it might go. Who knows what could happen? I’m doing it because I love it.”
And because, as anyone who has a younger sibling knows, he has a kid brother knew exactly what he was doing all along.