Tio Manuel

A set that moves from Tex-Mex to folk ballad, from urban blues to Latin refrains. Music that tastes of lukewarm beer, dusty roads, and colourful barrios. No need to look for a concept: it’s raw, festive, generous. As if Calexico had made a detour through Champigny-sur-Marne.

We knew him in the 80s, guitar slung over his shoulder and worn-out jacket, as part of Wunderbach, a French punk-rock band that delivered as much energy as a Clash concert on amphetamines.

Manu Castillo – who later became Tio Manuel – forged his style there: direct, electric, honest. Then came the time of parallel paths: Outsiders, Catch 22 with Joe Hell (ex-Oberkampf), or even gigs for La Souris Déglinguée.

In short, a youth spent “beefing up his game” in the style of Joe Strummer, Val-de-Marne version. Now settled in Brittany, the man cultivates his love for American sounds and desert spaces, which he sprinkles with Spanish vocals, from which he draws his roots.

In 2002, under the alias Tio Manuel, he recorded Rumba Urbana.