Kevin McManus

Kevin McManus is a bassist and songwriter whose genre-spanning career of stalwart touring and bar band experience has weathered three different decades of music industry tumultuousness.

McManus is known in Northeast Ohio’s rich music communities as a dynamic and colorful performer, sought to play with some of the region’s more entertaining acts. He is also an experienced studio musician, having been hired for sessions in Nashville, New York, Chicago, Cleveland and beyond.

In addition to freelance work, McManus currently plays with Ohio-based artists Anya Van Rose, The Michael Weber Show and Cory Grinder & The Playboy Scouts.

As a high schooler in 2006, McManus was invited to sing lead and write songs for then-burgeoning Cleveland emo/pop-punk quartet Burning Down Broadway. They saw mild regional success through their amicable indefinite hiatus in 2013. Perhaps most notably, BdB’s debut full-length Time is Money (2010), produced by Sinomatic guitarist Bryan Patrick, was distributed exclusively by national retailer Hot Topic. Music from the band’s next and final Patrick-produced album – Los Gatos (2012) – can be heard in the CBS Sports program Courage in Sports.

In 2015, McManus was invited to join Kent-based rock ‘n’ roll quintet The Outside Voices, an indie touring favorite throughout various Great Lakes and Southern U.S. markets, as well as Mile of Music Festival alums (`18, `19). Their final show was played in May 2022. Produced and engineered by Neil Tuuri of Amish Electric Chair Studios, the Voices released four records: Hound Dogs (2017); Big, Big (2018); Stoned & Lonely (2019); and Last Call (2022). Among them, McManus penned two standout singles: “Bad Bitch” (2020) and “Bourbon in Bed” (2019).

In late 2020, McManus was invited to join Akron stoner-rock trio The Buffalo Ryders for a studio project – again produced by Tuuri at Amish Electric Chair – eventually becoming their full-time bassist. The Buffs, during the McManus era, released two albums: Where the Liars Go (2021) and Going Nowhere (2022).

In early 2022, McManus was invited to join country-western outfit The Shootouts as their touring and studio bassist, ahead of the Soundly Music release of the Ray Benson-produced Stampede (2023). Prior to his final show with the band in October 2024, McManus played bass on the Dan Knobler-produced album Switchback (2025), appeared numerous times on the Grand Ole Opry and was included in a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame exhibit on Midwestern musicians.

Outside of music, McManus has worked in local print journalism since 2013, having authored and edited thousands of articles across multiple publications.

Past and other associated bands include: The Kindergarten Dropouts, Lack of Sanity, The Perfect Season, Pete Rose from the Dead, The Vulcanizers, Nick Wilkinson & The Featured Players, Jason Patrick Meyers, Oldboy, Brent Kirby, Ray Flanagan, Roger Hoover, Marc Lee Shannon, Goody & The Gospel, Reverend Lee, Jake Friel, Willis Gordon, The Cleveland Brown: A Tribute to Ween, and many others.