Road to Home County

Paul Mills was born weeks before the end of the Second World War. He almost became a chemical engineer, and even lays claim to formulating lemon fresh Joy. However, the world became a better place when he ran away and joined the CBC in the seventies-heyday of respectable budgets. Over the course of those early years, he enabled the founding of the  Winnipeg Folk Festival, flew across the Arctic Circle with Anne Murray, created a weekly folk  music radio show hosted by Sylvia Tyson, produced all but one of Stan Rogers’ records, fathered  Trevor, and then exposed him to the persistent culture of folk music.   

For Paul is a picker, and one of the finest from back in the day. Yet, he approaches music as a producer, always looking for and finding the tasteful ways to make the song – whatever song – just, better. That approach informed Trevor’s early musical influences. Mills the younger grew to be an intuitive bass player and songwriter himself, touring across Canada with the likes of Digging Roots, Nathan Rogers and Aengus Finnan.   

Trevor found his own balance between science and the arts. After graduating as an engineer, specializing in quantum physics, he found a career as a software developer. Coding is something he could do from the back of the tour van while driving across Canada for days at a time. He is more settled into home life these days, finding time around work for music with friends and family in Barrie, Ontario.   

Paul is still going strong. Although he has retired from his work as a record producer, he’s performing more solo shows these days than he has in years. In 2017, he was named as a Member of the Order of Canada for his years of exemplary contributions to the music industry and in 2021 he was inducted into the London Music Hall of Fame.