World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

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Wailing Souls

Band. Reggae, dub

Active
1968-present

The Wailing Souls formed in 1966 as the Renegades, with Winston "Pipe" Matthews, Lloyd "Bread" McDonald and George "Buddy" Haye, all of whom had been through Joe Higgs's singing classes in Trench Town, the same classes the Wailers came out of. Matthews had already recorded with the Schoolboys for Prince Buster. Matthews and McDonald are the two constants across sixty years.

They sang backing for Ernest Ranglin, broke up in 1968, and re-formed with Oswald Downer and Norman Davis, cutting "Gold Digger" for Lloyd "Matador" Daley and then recording at Studio One as the Classics. As Pipe and the Pipers they were among the first acts signed to Marley's Tuff Gong in the early 1970s. The names shifted constantly: the Renegades, the Classics, the Little Roys, Atarra, Massive, Pipe and the Pipers.

Joe Higgs sang with the group himself for a period, and when Jimmy Cliff recruited him for an American tour in the mid-1970s his place was taken by Rudolph "Garth" Dennis, a founding member of Black Uhuru. That lineup made the Channel One records the group is known for at home: "Things and Time," "Jah Jah Give Us Life" and "War." Bradley calls them "textbook-perfect conscious vocalizing."

Firehouse Rock (1980), produced by Henry "Junjo" Lawes with the Roots Radics and issued by Greensleeves, is the album that took them abroad. Inchpinchers (1982), On the Rocks and Stranded followed, and from 1981 they spent most of their time in California. Dennis went back to Black Uhuru and Haye stayed in Los Angeles, leaving Matthews and McDonald to carry on as a duo, which they have done since, through a major label period in the 1990s and a Grammy nomination for All Over the World (1992). They are still recording and performing.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide describes Higgs "tutoring young vocal harmony groups like the original Wailers and the Wailing Souls in the kitchen of his home in Trench Town." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 22. See also Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 213. Wikipedia gives the Renegades (1966), the three founders and the Schoolboys. "The Wailing Souls," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wailing_Souls.
  2. "The Wailing Souls."
  3. Wikipedia puts the Studio One singles ("Back Out With It," "Row Fisherman Row," "Mr. Fire Coal Man") before the 1968 lineup change, and the Daley single in 1970. "The Wailing Souls." "Gold Digger" appeared on Daley's Matador label in 1970. "Wailing Souls - Gold Digger / 100lbs Of Clay Version," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/4376406. Bradley says the group "began recording in their own right at Studio One," and that as session singers there they stood in when Peter and Bunny missed rehearsals. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 213-14. The Rough Guide names the group among Daley's artists. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 108.
  4. Wikipedia says the other names were used "to avoid confusion with The Wailers," and lists the group's Tuff Gong singles, "Harbour Shark" among them. "The Wailing Souls."
  5. The Rough Guide names Dennis as one of the original members of Black Uhuru, "later of the Wailing Souls." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 148. On Higgs's spell with the group and the Jimmy Cliff tour, "The Wailing Souls."
  6. Bradley lists "Things and Time," "Joy within Your Heart," "Very Well" and "War" among the Channel One records, and cites "Jah Jah Give Us Life." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 358, 492. The Rough Guide calls "Very Well" "perhaps their greatest single achievement" and dates their own Massive label, recording at Channel One, to 1976. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 157, 184.
  7. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 358.
  8. Discogs dates the Greensleeves album to 1981. "Wailing Souls - Fire House Rock," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/161419. The Rough Guide calls the group's Lawes album "as flawless as either their Studio One debut or the self-produced Wild Suspense." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 269.
  9. Discogs dates Inchpinchers to 1983. "Wailing Souls - Inchpinchers," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/161427. Wikipedia says the group was largely based in the United States from 1981 to 1984. "The Wailing Souls."
  10. Wikipedia says Haye stayed in the United States, Dennis returned to Black Uhuru in 1985, the singer Ziggy Thomas joined Matthews and McDonald in 1986 and Maisha in the 1990s, and All Over the World was the first of three Grammy nominations. "The Wailing Souls."

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