Barry Keenan

Barry Keenan has a lifetime career as a singer/songwriter. He started recording professionally at the age of 15. By the time he turned age 19, he had his first major publishing deal in New York and has been published by such notable companies as Warner/Chappell, Universal, All Nations Music, Criterion Music, and Peer-Southern Music. He currently is published by East Of Sideways Music.

As a recording engineer, Keenan owned and operated two commercial recording studios in the Los Angeles area during the 1970s and 80s. He has worked on the recorded music of such notable recording artists as Beck, Warren Zevon, Sting, Devo, Pantera, No Doubt, The Goo Goo Dolls and The Cranberries to name only a few.

As a producer, he received his first major break when Miles Copeland (The Police, IRS Records) hired Keenan to produce Adam Ant in 1984.

He is the recipient of The Arts For Humanities Award issued at The New World Festival in December of 1983.

Keenan was awarded SESAC’s highest honor in Nashville for his songs in the motion picture Kickboxer, starring Jean Claude Van Damne. Kickboxer was the biggest selling, #1 worldwide, box office movie for SESAC that year.

As a recording artist, he has received commercial radio play coast to coast from stations like KROQ and KLOS in Los Angeles to WCOZ in Boston. Programmed on Sirius Satellite’s Spirit Channel, Keenan was in heavy rotation going on to be classified as certified gold. He also had a first right of refusal recording deal with A & M Records.

In December of 2009, after spending a year on the Songs Of the Times Music Chart hosted by Neil Young on Neil Young’s “Living With War Today” website, Keenan reached the #1 position with his social awareness song entitled, “Our Comfortable Lives.” The song remained at the #1 position for an astonishing 62 weeks.

“Our Comfortable Lives” was also picked up in May 2011 by Editions-belin, fr, a book publishing company located in Paris, France. Keenan was designated his own chapter in the book, a college edition textbook entitled, La Chanson Dans La Classe. The book is designed to assist the learning of the English language in the classrooms of French speaking countries and is distributed accordingly. Other artists having song lyrics included in this text are Neil Young, Woody Guthrie, Eminem, Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Paul Stookey, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Freddie Mercury.

Keenan has headlined some of the premier stages in Los Angeles with his band including The Roxy, The Whiskey, and The Troubadour. As a soloist, he has performed continuously across the United States. During the 1980’s, Fignewtons, a night club in Pasadena, CA, built an entire room around Keenan to showcase his performances in which he headlined nightly. This engagement lasted 4 years. This was a large, 2-room venue. The other room was headlined by Second City Comedy Review which showcased the talents of John Candy, Eugene Levy, Betty Thomas, and Debra Harmon.

Keenan started performing at 15 years of age around the New England area opening for Tommy James & The Shondels, BJ Thomas, The Classics 4 and The Shirelles at the height of their popularity. As a soloist, Keenan was a huge draw at The Brothers 4 , the largest, premier night club on Cape Cod. He headlined the club for 2 years.