Shayar & the rise of Affrilachian reggae

By Black By God,

“Coming to West Virginia was like coming home,” says Jamaican-born Shayar, who has been bringing live, original reggae music to West Virginia audiences for decades. Just as he has influenced the music scene here, the mountains have influenced his music.

Get Up and Try, his first album recorded here in West Virginia, features him playing mandolin, an instrument he had never picked up until arriving in his adopted hometown of Beckley. Beckley diva Lady D signs back up for harmonies on the album.

“I was born in Ocho Rios, St Ann Parish, Jamaica, near the ocean, with the hills and mountains behind me,” Shayar says.  The year was 1956.

From an early age, Shayar (Lenval Jarrett) had a natural inclination towards music, with his bass-playing father being one of his greatest influences. Shayar began piano lessons in primary school, and he fashioned guitars from cigar boxes until, at age 12, he convinced his father to buy him a real guitar.

Already, he knew music would be his career. In high school, Shayar played in a band called Ozone that worked the hotel circuit along the north coast of Ocho Rios. 

When Shayar was 19, Jack Ruby, a famous Jamaican producer, introduced him to reggae superstar Burning Spear. For the next several years, Shayar played rhythm guitar for Grammy-winning Burning Spear on international tours. Over ensuing decades, he also toured and played in studio sessions with Gregory Isaacs, Anthony B, the Itals, Mighty Diamonds, Freddie McGregor, Leroy Sibbles, and others.

When not on tour with big-name artists, Shayar focused on writing and recording his own original music. In 1984, he moved to Brooklyn, NY, and formed a band. One of his bandmates hailed from West Virginia and wanted to return, convincing him to leave the concrete jungle after 12 years there.

“I love the mountains, and I was missing them,” Shayar says. In 1999, he moved to the mountains of Beckley, where he found the natural beauty akin to that of Jamaica.  

Shayar has recorded six albums and numerous singles. Shayar’s original lyrics focus on universal themes of positivity, spirituality, and love, as evidenced by his song titles, which include Unity, Living Loving, The Human Spirit, and Culture in the Dance.

Although he is a prolific singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist – playing lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, mandolin, keyboards, harmonica, and drums – Shayar also finds creative outlet in painting, and, as an accomplished painter, he has exhibited in shows around Beckley. 

Since shortly after Hurricane Melissa – one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record and the strongest to ever hit Jamaica – devastated Jamaica in late October 2025, Shayar has been absent from the West Virginia music scene. He had headed to Jamaica to help with post-Hurricane clean-up and to see his mother and siblings. Shayar was due back in West Virginia at the end of March, but he had to stay there due to personal tragedies. 

To learn more about what has befallen this amazing artist, who chooses to make West Virginia his home, and to help support him if you can during a very difficult time, visit this GoFundMe page.

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