This Thursday (February 2nd) will mark 16 years since Terry McMillan passed away at his home in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Though his death is shrouded in mystery, his family, his fans, and fellow musicians continue carry on his legacy in music. Here’s my story on how I got introduced to him.
I was listening to the radio one day when I was a kid, when it turned to this song called “Ain’t Goin’ Down ('til the Sun Comes Up)”. I used to hate this song with a passion, but I decided to give it a second chance by listening to it. When it came to the end of Terry’s first solo, I was blown away by it so much that I turned to my mom and said “did you just hear that?” And that song essentially sparked my special interest in the harmonica. I would eventually hear other songs that had his harp playing in it, but yet I couldn’t pin down the player’s name. It wasn’t until 2017, when Garth’s ‘Anthology Part 1’ came out on book shelves. There was a chapter based on “Ain’t Goin’ Down”, so I decided to take a look and I found the name of the guy who played harp on that song, Terry McMillan. That was the first time I ever found out about a harmonica player that wasn’t playing Dylan-style or playing simple fills. His uniquely intense, cool, and bluesy playing style was something I sought after as a musician and eventually I picked up the harmonica as a musicial instrument because of him. And I’ve made so many friends because of our mutual respect for Terry and I eventually made a Facebook group dedicated to him.
