Doug McKean crossed the US and Canada several times over with his first band, The GC5 by the time they broke up when he was still in his early 20’s. He’s backed Tim Easton in Europe, opened for the Band of Heathens and Hayes Carll across Texas with The Magpies, and fronted a group of Cleveland musicians to play Pogues songs every St. Patrick’s day and Christmas for over 20 years as The Boys from The County Hell, racking up a tour with Spider Stacy, a trip to Bangkok and a residency in Las Vegas along the way. His song ‘Poor Old Poseidon’ was featured in the 2017 film La Barracuda. In 2011, he stepped away from performing original music.

After a decade-long hiatus, McKean released The Second Golden Age of Piracy in 2022, and it was time to start collaborating in-person again. McKean called his old friends, Brent Kirby and Bobby Latina, with whom he’d occasionally filled in on bass in their band The Jack Fords, who eagerly signed on to add drums and  guitar. They recruited Andy Leach, who performs with Kirby in their Gram Parsons revival project The New Soft Shoe,  to play bass, and Doug McKean and The Stuntmen was born. As a quartet, it’s an experienced and accomplished group that switches gears effortlessly between Byrdsy pop, fizzy punk, and Stonesy rock. As a songwriter, McKean is elated to have a group of musicians around him that match the openness, inquisitiveness, and fearlessness of his songs.

Between the four of them, they’ve been nominated for local music awards in every genre from punk to country to folk. They’ve shared stages with everyone from Raul Malo to Lucero, Elizabeth Cook to The James Gang, Dawes to Dropkick Murphys and many, many more. They'll be keeping up an active live schedule in 2024.