The Chambers Brothers

Black gospel/funk/psychedelic innovators, the Chambers Brothers had an enthusiastic following in the late '60s. The four brothers grew up in a poverty-stricken Mississippi sharecropping family and first sang together at the Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Lee County. George, the eldest, was drafted into the army in 1952. Once discharged, he gravitated to south L.A. and was eventually joined by his brothers. They began performing around Southern California as a gospel and folk quartet in 1961.

After their first New York dates in 1965, they became an interracial group with the addition of drummer Brian Keenan and moved toward rock. The group attracted national attention at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival and worked both the psychedelic ballrooms (the Fillmores, Electric Circus) and soul venues like New York’s Apollo Theatre. They signed with Columbia in 1967, and the title track from their first album for that label, “Time Has Come Today,” became a major hit (#11, 1968). They charted with several more singles, including “I Can’t Turn You Loose” (#37, 1968), and LPs (A New Time, A New Day and Love, Peace and Happiness) over the next few years.

The original group broke up in early 1972, with drummer Keenan joining Genya Ravan’s band. The Chambers Brothers reunited in 1974 for Unbonded. They continue an on-again, off-again career. In 1980 they supported Maria Muldaur on her Gospel Nights and made commercials for Levi Strauss. Early in 1980 Lester relocated to New York (where he formed a band with ex–Electric Flag bassist Harvey Brooks), and several of the brothers worked on solo careers. Willie and Joe became session players, George sang gospel, and all the brothers belong to an extended-family gospel choir called the Chambers Family Singers. Keenan went on to run his own Connecticut recording studio; in the mid-’80s, he died of an apparent heart attack.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)