GREGG MCMILLAN: REVIEWS

SCENE & HEARD
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DAVE
SCHLENKER
TRACY WILCOX/The Gainesville Sun
Long-time Gainesville musician Gregg McMillan poses at Rec
Room Studios. where he recorded his first solo album.
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McMillan’s solo disc rooted in Gainesville
There’s a lot of history
b e h i n d G r e g g
McMillan’s debut
solo CD.
Sure, the tracks on
the self-titled disc
cover much ground,
from the 16th Street
Baptist Church bombing in
Alabama to the long-time
Gainesville musician’s own
life.
But McMillan’s life behind
the scenes — the making of
this CD — crosses much local
history, particularly in the
Gainesville music scene. Fact
is, this collection of gritty rock
entangles many branches, if
not actual roots, on Hogtown’s
musical family tree.
Consider:
■ The disc is produced by
music store owner Jeff Sims,
who, decades ago, was
McMillan’s bandmate in
Gainesville’s “almost famous”
country-rock band The Dixie
Desperados. The Desperados
shared stages with bands from
Pure Prairie League and the
Allman Brothers Band to
Molly Hatchet and the Charlie
Daniels Band.
■ McMillan’s disc was a trip to
make, but the album has a bittersweet
edge: It is dedicated
to three musicians and close
friends who passed away
within the past 15 months:
Gainesville bassist Kevin Wilson,
former Desperados drummer
Steve Nelson and drummer
Robert Simpson, who
replaced Nelson when he left
the Desperados.
The deaths — especially so
close together — lit a fire
under McMillan, who had
always planned to make his
own album. “It was just kind
of a wake-up call,” said
McMillan.
■ A primary player on the disc
— on drums, guitar, keyboard,
harmonica and even percussion
from a hand truck found
in the parking lot — is Stan
Lynch, a current hit songwriter
and former drummer
for Gainesville-bred Tom Petty
& the Heartbreakers.
The three go back a bit,
with Sims and Lynch being
close friends since their childhood
in Gainesville. The two,
McMillan recalled, were hard
to miss; McMillan even
admired the way Sims and
Lynch swaggered through the
halls of Westwood Junior High
School.
“You would not believe how
cool these guys were,”
McMillan said, sitting next to
Sims at Gainesville’s Rec
Room Studios, where the disc
was recorded. “They were the
bomb.”
■ Rec Room itself resonates
deeply into the Gainesville
Music Family Tree. Many local
bands, big and small, have laid
down tracks there, and the
studio is owned by Dan Dickhaus
and Ronny Cates.
Cates, who has produced
his share of music, was the
bassist for the Christian-rock
band Petra, pioneers in the
genre, as I recall. They were
big. In fact, upon entering the
unassuming Rec Room in
northwest Gainesville, you
immediately notice Grammy
Awards — as in HOLYMOTHER-
OF-BATMAN,
THOSE ARE GRAMMY
AWARDS!!! — in a lobby
display case. Since Petra’s
Grammy days, Cates has left
his imprints on music by Less
Than Jake, Creed, Sister
Hazel, Drew Copeland, guitarist
Sam Pacetti and gobs of
other recordings he can’t
remember offhand.
In his liner notes, McMillan
thanks Dickhaus and Cates for
“letting us have more fun than
we paid for.”
McMillan is known in these
parts as a bass player, but this
disc has him on lead vocals,
bass, guitar, harmonica and
mandolin. He wrote all songs
on the CD except the track
“Remember,” which was written
by former Desperado Mike
Chasteen, also McMillan’s
cousin, who wrote the song for
Nelson and Simpson. The CD
rings of old-school rock and
blues, punctuated with acoustic
trimmings and — on one
cut — a lap steel guitar.
“It’s really organic,” Sims
said of the album. “It’s not an
empty record; it’s spacious.”
Lynch said the experience
helped McMillan, long known
as a member of a band, come
out of the shadows. “He’s finding
his voice,” Lynch said. “He
has a point of view; his heart
is in it.”
Locally, the disc is available
this month at Hyde and Zeke
Records, Sims Music, Lipham
Music and Hear Again CDs.
McMillan expects the CD to be
sold through major Internet
retail outlets such as
Amazon.com within weeks.
In the meantime, you can
catch McMillan and Sims
playing music from the CD
starting at 7 tonight at Calico
Jack’s.

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Dave Schlenker can be
reached at 374-5045 or
scene@gvillesun.com.
McMillan and Sims
perform tonight
at Calico Jack’s.
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