Sylford Walker

Artist. Reggae, roots

Active

1975-present

Sunrise

Penlyne Castle, St. Thomas, Jamaica

Sylford Walker is a roots singer in the Burning Spear mold whose cult reputation rests mainly on the sides he recorded for Glen Brown in the mid-to-late 1970s.

Born in St. Thomas, he ran away to Kingston at about thirteen and spent a year in jail for a spliff, the experience behind his first record. Joe Gibbs sent him to his engineer Errol Thompson, and in 1975 he cut the searing "Burn Babylon" and "Jah Golden Pen." Bradley hears "Burn Babylon" as one of the breeziest, sunniest records of the roots era.

Brown, a neighbor on Lobban Street, then had him voice a series of riddims at King Tubby's, among them "Lamb's Bread" and "Chant Down Babylon," which Bradley counts among the Pantomine and South East Music records "better remembered for quality than quantity." The album Lamb's Bread, mixed by Tubby, was not issued until Greensleeves released it in 1988, and Blood & Fire reissued it in 2000 with deejay versions by Welton Irie. Walker, a member of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, moved with Dennis Brown, Horace Andy and Freddy McKay, and kept recording after the roots revival brought him to Europe.

Last updated October 23, 2026

Connections

• King Tubby (engineer)
• Joe Gibbs (producer)
• Glen Brown (producer)
• Errol Thompson (collaborator)
• Wayne Jarrett (labelmate)
• Dennis Brown (friend)
• Horace Andy (friend)
• Freddy McKay (friend)

Notes

1. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 180.
2. Angus Taylor, "Interview: Sylford Walker," United Reggae, July 5, 2011, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n685/070511/interview-sylford-walker. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 160, 180.
3. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 353.
4. Taylor, "Interview: Sylford Walker." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 365.
5. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 181; Taylor, "Interview: Sylford Walker."
6. Taylor, "Interview: Sylford Walker."

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