(Who is Tiwayo? Have you heard of him before? Where does that voice come from?)
France may be famous for fine wines, electronic music, and buttery croissants—but not exactly for producing some of the deepest soul records. Tiwayo is here to change that. With Outsider, he delivers a rare and radiant soul gem, cracking the limits of cultural expectations and proving that true soul knows no borders.
Celebrated by musical luminaries including Norah Jones, Marcus Miller, Tony Visconti, and Don Was, Tiwayo built a reputation opening stages for Sting, Seal, and Marcus Miller. After two acclaimed albums Desert Dreams and The Gypsy Soul of Tiwayo on the legendary Blue Note Records, Tiwayo had nearly vanished from the scene before Adrian Quesada heard his demos and pulled him back into the spotlight.
Their paths crossed at France’s Les Eurockéennes festival, leading Tiwayo from Paris to Austin and into the Adrian Quesada’s Electric Deluxe Studio. There, he and Quesada forged a raw, genre-bending take on soul, with contributions from Pumas members and other leading lights of the retro-soul scene. Doyle Bramhall II, longtime Eric Clapton collaborator, lends guitar to three tracks, including “Daddy Was Born with the Blues”, Tiwayo’s tribute to his late father, enriched by strings from Sly5thAve. Brooklyn’s Kendra Morris (Colemine Records) joins him for “Unchained Lovers”, a velvet-smooth duet steeped in Hi Records southern tradition.
While many modern retro-soul acts lean toward Motown polish, Tiwayo’s sound remains raw, uncompromising, and rooted in Southern soul traditions—a lineage he once touched firsthand when meeting the Reverend Al Green in Memphis.
On Outsider, Tiwayo reflects on what it means to be an artist (“I’ve Got to Travel Alone”), slyly grooves on “Up for Soul”, celebrates everyday beauty (“Sunshine Lady,” “My House Is Your Home”), and finds resilience in loss (“Dark Skies”). With tight grooves and vivid storytelling, the album is both intimate and collective, deeply human and unflinchingly honest.
Tiwayo doesn’t play by the genre’s rules. He stands apart: a Frenchman in Texas, a soul singer with a bluesman’s heart, a traveler who never quite belongs anywhere. In a world of polished revivals, Tiwayo embraces being the outsider—an anti-hero of soul who proves that the raw and unvarnished carry the deepest power
