Brian Keenan

Who was Brian Keenan?

Brian Edmund Peter Keenan was an American musician, best known as the drummer for The Chambers Brothers. Born in New York, he also lived in Conisbrough near Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, and Ireland as a child.

Keenan was part of The Chambers Brothers from 1965 to 1971, and also played with the pre-"Doo Wah Diddy Diddy" Manfred Mann group in England. His group, the Losers, was the house band at Ondine, the first discotheque in New York City.

Bill Graham, the impresario behind the Filmore West and the Filmore East, felt that Brian was an exciting live rock drummer. The few times the Chambers Brothers were not top-billed with Brian on drums, the top-billed group was reluctant to follow them. The Brothers affectionately referred to Brian as Curley and introduced him onstage as Brian "Chambers" Keenan. The Chambers Brothers predated Sly and the Family Stone as harbingers of psychedelic soul. Keenan also wrote one of its early songs, "Love Me Like the Rain," which appeared on the Shout album. Keenan left the group in 1971 after major financial abuses by the group's management were unresolved. He started up his own recording studio in Connecticut, but he suffered a fatal heart attack in the mid 1980s. Keenan is buried at Queen of Peace cemetery in Stamford, Connecticut.