Who Was The Last Surviving Wailer?

Entertainment consultant and former manager of the late Reggae icon Bunny Wailer, Maxine Stowe, has clarified and contextualized claims recently made by Aston Barrett Jr., the son of well-known musician Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett, that his father was a member of The Wailers.

“How can you be a Wailer and you’re not getting any royalties? Aston Barrett was a member of the backing band, not in the category of the singer/songwriter Wailer,” Bunny Wailer’s former manager Maxine Stowe told DancehallMag.

Another Jamaican singer, Beverly Kelso, is also known as an early member of The Wailers. She was a backing vocalist, and largely credited as one of the founding members of The Wailers (between 1963 and 1965). According to Kelso, she sang on 25 tracks by the group, the last in late 1965. She emigrated to the United States in 1979.

However, Stowe said, “Beverly Kelso is a background person, she is not a Wailer either.”

“There were only three signed as singer-songwriter to Coxsone and they were packaged in a similar manner to the American R&B acts like Smokey and the Miracles, or Diana and the Supremes. There were only three of them, check the contract.”

During an interview with The Gleaner,  Barrett Jr. says some of the headlines surrounding his death are somewhat misleading as they have reported that Bunny was the last surviving member of the original Reggae group. Barrett Jr contended that although he was not a singing member, his father is indeed an original Wailers member and, although ill, is still very much alive.

The New York Times, USA Today, CBS News, Jamaica Gleaner, and many other publications all regarded Bunny as the last surviving member of the original group in coverage of his death earlier this year.

“I understand why they would say Uncle Bunny was the last surviving member of the original Wailers because Bob, Peter and Bunny were the main faces of the group. My father never loved the spotlight, and he wasn’t a singer, but he was there from the beginning,” Barrett Jr. said.

The Wailers first formed in Trench Town in 1963 as the Teenagers, a six-piece vocal harmony group – Braithwaite, Marley, Peter Tosh, Neville Livingston (aka Bunny Wailer), Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Green. After a Sunday audition, the record producer Clement “Sir Coxsone” Dodd told them to come back next morning for their first recording session and contract. Barrett is never mentioned as part of the early history of the group.

“I don’t feel good to hear people saying Uncle Bunny was the last surviving member of The Wailers because my father is still here, but it all depends on what category people put the members in. I understand that some people only acknowledge the singers, and so when Uncle Bunny passed, they said he was the last member,” Barrett Jr told The Gleaner.

However, Stowe also shot down this argument.

“Either you are a member or you’re not. There were only 3 Wailers, Junior Braithwaite left in September 1964, and he was not there for the seminal works. So the question is: are you earning royalties? If you’re not, then how can you be a Wailer?” she asked cheekily.

Industry insiders have suggested that the deaths of Junior Braithwaite in 1999, of Cherry Smith in 2008, and of Bunny Wailer in 2021 have left Kelso as the only surviving founding member of the Wailers.

“I never saw Beverly Kelso emerge as a singer, or Braithwaite or Cherry Smith so it’s kind of self-explanatory,” Stowe contended.

Junior Braithwaite, who was murdered in Jamaica in 1999 at the age of 47, was the original lead vocalist with the Wailers. He emigrated to Chicago, and hoped to pursue a medical career that never came to fruition.

The Wailers’ first official issue, Simmer Down, was led by Marley, and was number one on the JBC radio charts for two months from December 1963. It Hurts to be Alone, which featured Braithwaite’s distinctive high tenor, was also a strong seller later.

In 1984, Braithwaite returned to Jamaica to take part in Never Ending Wailers, an album of restructured classics that Bunny Wailer had initiated with Peter Tosh. Tosh was murdered in 1987, but the project was completed over seven years.

“In groups, members come and go but there is a core that maintains. So Bob, Bunny and Peter are the constant songwriters. Bunny highly respected the Barrett brothers as much as he did the members of the Skatalites who were the seminal musicians who co-created with the group,” Stowe said.