London's acoustic soul revivalist

Kiwanuka spoke on the phone this week from his tour bus after playing the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tenn.

"I was a bit worried about how that would work outside, instead of an intimate indoor venue," says the easygoing singer, who headlines the World Cafe Live downstairs Friday. "It's totally different outside, but it seemed to go over fairly well. I'm playing with a band now, too, so that helps. So far, so good."

One March afternoon at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, Kiwanuka, who has signed to Mumford & Sons' Communion record label in the United Kingdom, held a crowd of music-industry insiders transfixed with his own tranquil take on '70s folk soul, plus a cover of Withers' "I Don't Know." He was followed on stage that day by the Alabama Shakes, the American soul-rock band, whose considerably more raucous approach has created a buzz equally persistent to the one that's traveled across the pond with Kiwanuka.

"I'm really a big fans of theirs," says Kiwanuka, who cites Bob Dylan and Otis Redding as early influences, and says he has been listening to a lot of American 1950s guitar innovator Link Wray of late. "I guess that says something about my tastes, that even the new music that I like has some old-school things about it."

Kiwanuka has been playing music for a decade now, and he did work as a session guitarist before hearing Redding and Sam Cooke records that gave him the confidence to be a front man. And though he has been writing songs for only a few years, he has his sights set on the long haul.

He'd like to model his career on "anyone that has had longevity and tried to reinvent themselves as they go along," he says. "So they have their own sound so you always know it's them, but still try to develop with each album, like an artist like Neil Young or Dylan or even Radiohead. Those are the kind of musicians that inspire me."

Contact Dan DeLuca at 215-854-5628 or deluca@phillynews.com, or follow him on Twitter @delucadan.