UHD’s Thursday Night Concert Series rolls into its third week with soul of many kinds, as Houston-based singer-songwriter Micah Edwards, aka Mr. Texas Soul, opens the festivities with his “buttery vocals” and his one-of-a-kind retro, neo-soul twang. His debut LP “Jean Leon” is a confessional of sorts, as Edwards shows a vulnerability that almost hurts to hear, while his lyrics tell the story of emotional turbulence and are accompanied by music that feels as if it could come undone at any time, despite its obvious harmony. His sound is “an amalgamation of what he loves: Jesus, his wife, Texas, piano, pedal steel, and his mother … mixed with things he’s sought to understand: brokenness, forgiveness, reconciliation, and his relationship with his father.” 

The night will be closed out by Kam Franklin, whose “Gulf Coast soul” is as audacious as the story of how she became a musician full time. Back in 2015, she worked as a “gas and power trade support analyst” at an Australian financial services company with offices here in Houston. After years in the role, she decided, finally, to pursue music with everything she could muster. Turns out, she can muster more than enough from her considerable talent, enthusiasm, and charisma to charm fans throughout the country. After a performance with her band “The Suffers” on David Letterman, an exuberant Letterman exclaimed, “If you can’t do this, get out of the business!” If that were true, Franklin might be the only person in music.