John grew up, in southeast Kansas, in a household full of music. His dad had a huge Magnavox console stereo that pumped out the music of the big band era. His dad also loved tape recorders and taught John how to record the audio signal. John's sister had a 45 rpm record player and she played all the top 40 hits.

In the early 1970's, John's neighbor was Stan Stuckey; a budding young guitar player that played in local bands and whose family owned a thriving music store. Stan soon left Kansas and played all over the United States touring with several bands.

In mid 1970's, still a freshman in high school, John was invited to join an established band called The Nashville Echoes. They played a bluesy style of country music and traveled every weekend to play dancehalls, roadhouses and nightclubs throughout Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

In the early 1980's, after graduating college, John formed The Moonlight Blues Band with drummer and vocalist Don Dangerfield.

In 1986, John and Don made some personnel changes and renamed the band The Dangerfield McNally Band. They began working with an incredible bass player named John Wise; a Kansas City blues veteran. John Wise would relocate to Colorado within 2 years but not before sharing his vast knowledge of how to play different styles of traditional electric blues! The Dangerfield McNally Band had great success in the Kansas City area.

In 1991, Dangerfield McNally released their first album entitled "Blues From Kings". This album featured a new bass player named Pat Recob. With Pat on board, Dangerfield McNally began playing area blues festivals and performed regularly at The Grand Emporium, opening shows for many national blues bands.

In 1992, John was invited, by blues promoter Roger Naber, to play in the "Kansas City Guitar Masters" at the '92 Kansas City Blues and Jazz festival. For that show, John played with Sonny Kenner, Bill Dye, and Freddie Johnson; all KC veteran blues guitarists.

In very early 1994, Dangerfield McNally released a second album entitled "Extra Fine Vibe".

In the Spring of 1994, John started another band called John McNally and the Esquires with Pat and drummer Allen Fishell. The Esquires instantly became very popular and in June won the '94 KC Blues Society "Best Blues Band of the Year" award. John McNally and the Esquires went on to Memphis to compete nationally in the Blues Foundation's National Blues Talent Contest at The New Daisy Theatre on Beale Street. It was there, on October 9th, that Susan Tedeschi won second place and launched her career.

In 1995, John was asked by KC blues legend Provine "Little" Hatch  to play with his band Little Hatch and the Houserockers. With Little Hatch, John played every Friday night at the Grand Emporium and all the major blues festivals in the midwest. In this band, John learned the finer points of playing "Chicago style" blues.

In 1996, John McNally and the The Esquires continued to be very popular and on January 17th, the KC Star newspaper did a feature story on the band. Additionally, Lindsay Shannon, a longtime KC radio host, helped promote The Esquires by playing their music on the radio and featuring the band at Shannon's popular venue BB's Lawnside Bar BQ.

In 1997, John began a long association with the masterfully talented organist Ken Lovern. For the next 10 years Ken and John played together as The Soulcats, an organ jazz trio that played bluesy, gritty souljazz in the Bluenote Records tradition. The Soulcats recorded an album entitled "The Wedding Album". John and Ken also began playing in other formats including The John McNally Band, Trio and Duo. These groups included drummer Todd Strait.

In 2008, John reconnected with long lost neighbor Stan Stuckey and together they decided to work on an electric blues project that would become the latest version of The John McNally Band. It was also around this time, that John began to work occasionally with blues veteran Lee McBee in his band The Confessors, featuring Pat Recob on bass.

In 2011, John and Stan released the album "West Side Blues" under the name of The John McNally Band.

Stan was born into a family of very successful professional musicians. Music was a way of life from day one. In addition to music performance, Stan's family also owned a music store that sold records, band instruments and provided music instruction. From a very early age Stan absorbed music performance and instruction from his family and their many musical associations. Stan quickly became skilled at piano and guitar. Stan began playing in working bands while he was a young teenager.

Stan grew up as a neighbor of John McNally. In fact, John bought one of his first guitars, and all of his records, from the Stucky owned music store.

In the late 1970's Stan began a journey of many years on the road touring throughout the United States with rock and country bands. It was during this time, while touring as a sideman, that Stan found himself sharing stages and performing with such notable acts as The Average White Band; Blood, Sweat and Tears; Sugarloaf; Hank Thompson; The Hager Twins and Cal Smith.

During the 1980's Stan recorded and toured with the heavy rock band Atomsko Skloniste from Yugoslavia.

In the early 1990's, Stan settled in the Kansas City area and turned his attention to performing traditional country music. He began a 14 year run performing Saturday nights at the very popular Fort Scott Country Jubilee, playing guitar and piano. It was during this time that Stan began playing the bass.

Sometime in the 2000's, Stan recognized that his musical calling would be the blues. As a bluesman, Stan's passion is playing bass. During this period, Stan and John unexpectedly encountered each other one day, not realizing that they lived in the same city, and quickly realized their combined musical potential.

Three veteran drummers from the Kansas City music scene perform with the John McNally Band. Each bringing a similar, yet distinct, feel to the music.

Allen Fishell, Rick Bruner and Kevin Frazee rotate the drum duty in the John McNally Band. This allows each drummer to remain free to participate in other music projects. Allen has been playing gigs with John for nearly 25 years. Rick has been playing with John for about 15 years and Kevin for about 10 years. Additionally, Allen and Kevin have recorded with John on multiple sessions throughout the years.