Gregg McMillan by Gregg McMillan

-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 HOLY-MOTHER-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."

With obvious Neil Young, Tom Petty and Lynyrd Skynyrd influences heard throughout, the CD is a must for new artist/music seekers as well as devoted TP&HB fans looking for Stan Lynch collectables.

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