Born in the city of Chicago but raised in Dubuque, Iowa, he attended Yale University for two years before branching out into a professional music career that began in Boston, Massachusetts.
[5] Although he had dropped out of Yale before completing a university career, McDermott was able to find work as a staff member in the US House of Representatives.
McDermott went on to describe how the satisfaction of song writing, and the feeling community arising from live performances, rang "the louder bell".
While in Canada, the group contributed two songs that were featured in the soundtrack of Robert Clouse's horror film The Rats (known in America as Deadly Eyes).
[14][15] Alongside McDermott's contributions to The Rats soundtrack, he also began collaborating extensively in the 1980s with fellow musician John Stewart.
[18] By the 2010s, McDermott had become a solo artist, releasing two separate albums titled Gin & Rosewater (2017) and 38 Degrees and Raining (2021).