By Don Thrasher
For the Dayton Daily News

Tony Lucca was a cast member of the All New Mickey Mouse Club from 1991 to 1994, but when the singer comes to town for several local appearances this week, don't expect him to be busting dance moves and delivering R&B-flavored pop songs like his former co-stars Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera.

Lucca - who was to perform at Gem City Records and Elbo's on Thursday, and at Goodfellows in Beavercreek at 10 p.m. today - is no pop idol.

Despite his celebrity brushes with greatness and his own thwarted attempt at TV stardom with the 1995 Aaron Spelling drama Malibu Shores, the 28-year-old Detroit native is a staunch rock 'n' roller. Lucca built his fan base through a grassroots combination of live performances, marketing his self-released CDs on his own Web site and promoting his endeavors through the use of street teams. That dedication paid off recently when Lucca signed with Nu Vibe Records, a division of Lightyear Entertainment. His label debut and third full-length, Shotgun, will be released in late March and the singer and songwriter is already on the road doing solo acoustic shows promoting the upcoming release.

"I've been playing solo so diligently for so long that I've found it to be the most dynamic, most efficient, not to mention easiest way to present the material," Lucca said, speaking from his home in Brooklyn, where he moved in November after living in Los Angeles for about a decade.

"Ideally, you get on the road and you try to get a big sound to convey the record and recreate the songs the best you can but I've been performing mostly solo and I'll probably continue doing so."

This is not the method of operation people normally associate with media-savvy former Mouseketeers like Spears and Aguilera who routinely launch high-dollar promotional assaults on the nation's consumers. Of course, Lucca isn't delivering flavor of the month pop music so he's taking a more traditional approach, which is fitting for his new album. Shotgun is a straight-up rock record with strong melodies, clever arrangements and a warm, immediate sound that isn't overproduced or weighed down by modern studio trickery. The songs have a classic mid-'80s vibe, somewhere between Elvis Costello and Bryan Adams, without sounding dated.

"With this project I started out with the intention of getting some demos together that I could shop around," Lucca said. "As I got into the recording process with my band and my bass player, who helped me produce it, I realized when could do it ourselves and at the end of the day we'd have a finished product. I figured we could go the independent route again or if not maybe find a home for the record itself, which ultimately ended up happening."

Lucca, who was teaching himself guitar at the age of 7, the piano at 8 and songwriting at 9, had already performed in a string of cover bands before getting the Mickey Mouse Club job. Joining a kids show seems like a strange choice for a teenage rocker and Lucca admits he didn't intentionally set out to join the program. He was there for what he mistakenly thought was an open cattle call for a Disney-produced film. He initially passed on the TV opportunity but decided to at least listen to the pitch after discussing it with his sister.

"Once they told me what the show consisted of, I decided I could get into it," he said. "I knew it could change my life or it could just be a good summer vacation, a good job or whatever. I didn't feel like I was selling out my artistic aspirations at the age of 15 by going and doing a TV show. It was an all-around priceless education and training for the industry and craft of making music and acting. It was an unforgettable and life altering experience. In the years since its cancellation the show certainly has become a phenomenon but we had no idea at the time.

"Now it seems like a launch pad and boot camp training ground like Fame high school," Lucca continued. "Of course, now to have been involved with it is a bit of a double-edged sword. I've never been one to be above talking about or defending the show but at the same time there are a lot of people who've had enough. I've definitely had my battles about whether to embrace it or hide and I've pretty much come to conclusion that the music will pretty much speak for itself. Just listen to the record and make your own decisions and that's cool."

Contact free-lance arts and music writer Don Thrasher at donaldthrasher8@aol.com.