James Morrison hit up The Granada Theater this evening, doing it in a style hard to match. The singer stormed on stage getting the crowd going before the first notes were even played. You knew then it was going to be an energetic evening, and that fashion continued with several upbeat numbers. This singer songwriters definitely got soul, and even as he slowed it down giving some more traditional guitar ballads James never wavered in the amount of intensity he was willing to give.

One of the best numbers of the night was one that James set the guitar down for and pulled the microphone off its stand, the track titled “If You Dont Wanna Love Me” had the singer back and forth on the stage then dropping to his knees, giving full conviction. If he didn’t have the room in the palm of his hand yet, that moment would have pulled the rest of them in. It didn’t take him long after that to take the energy through the roof, mashing Stevie Wonder’s “Alright” into his song “Nothing Ever Hurt Like You,” and every pair of hands were clapping along at his request, some couples even dancing in the crammed space.  As any good show man would, he saved his biggest hit to date “Wondeful World” for the encore.

Thursday marked the first time James has ever played Dallas, however he is already on his sophomore cd, he played the entire track list through out the night and sprinkled it with several tracks off the first release “Undiscovered.” It’s honestly amazing he hasn’t had more commercial success in the US. Maybe the current successes of other soulful Brit artist like Adele and Duffy will help open the ears of America. Talent like this shouldn’t remain (pun intended) Undiscovered.