of age he remains one of the most vital musical figures from the loudest island in the world.

Born Neville O’Riley Livingston, he grew up alongside the iconic Bob Marley. As boys in Kingston, Jamaica, the pair received singing lessons from vocalist Joe Higgs, who was already a star. Teaming up with Peter Tosh and Junior Braithwaite to become the Wailers.

From “Simmer Down,” the band’s first release on Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One label, they were immediate big hit-makers, charting song after song in the middle of the 1960s. Marley moved to America for a short period, and when he returned, the Wailers followed the musical times into reggae, working with producer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry before going to Britain to try their luck. Signing with Chris Blackwell’s Island label, Catch a Fire and Burnin’ rapidly made stars of the band and took reggae to the world.

It was at this point that Bunny Wailer left to start his solo career, starting with the deep, conscious Blackheart Man, followed by Protest and Struggle, a trio of albums on his own Solomonic label that showed his political and religious convictions. He followed that by looking back with Bunny Wailer Sings the Wailers, fronting the Roots Radics, led by Sly & Robbie.

The 1980s saw Wailer pushing ahead. Dancehall was beginning to replace reggae as the music of choice in Jamaica and he was involved in the fledgling genre, eager to be a part of something new and vibrant. 1983 saw him perform live for the first time in almost a decade, headlining a concert in Kingston to benefit the Jamaican Institute for the Blind, captured on the Live album.

From there his career seemed to be reinvigorated. He toured the U.S., scored Jamaican smashes with the dancehall singles “Cool Runnings” and “Rock’n’Groove,” before returning to roots music for Liberation, which received international acclaim as Wailer toured globally, backed by his former Studio One labelmates, the Skatalites. He followed that with Time Will Tell: A Tribute to Bob Marley, the album that would bring Wailer his first Grammy, before returning to dancehall for Massive, which roared up the Jamaican charts in 1992. Three years after that, Hall of a Fame: A Tribute to Bob Marley’s 50the Anniversary, a collection of Marley compositions, brought another Grammy.

Rastafarianism had always been at the core of Wailer’s work, but toward the end on the 1990s he began to focus more on politics, even forming his own party, the United Progressive Party. Working for educational reforms and youth issues, as well as the legalization of marijuana, Wailer kept his attention on the legislature rather than the recording studio. But Communication, released in 2000, heralded the return of Bunny Wailer the musician. Since then he’s released a string of albums, culminating in the 50-track, triple CD, Reincarnated Souls, a retrospective of his career highlights from the early days to current times, a reminder of how important a figure Wailer has been – and continues to be.

Bunny Wailer remains as vital now as he was when he was 20, still making conscious, captivating music, still searching, and still the keeper of the flame for Jamaican music.