Kicking off Thursday night at the M-Shop was acoustic pop-folk artist Molly Parden, who opened for Matthew Perryman Jones.

Stepping onto stage with an acoustic guitar in hand, Parden broke the ice by joking about the start of their tour.

“I’ve been on tour for almost a whole week so I’m pretty pooped,” Parden said. “I’m going to take you on a journey that I went through two years ago and got eight songs out of.”

The show started with “I Know You Can,” a song she had written back in 2016 to help her through a break up.

Parden’s smooth soprano voice rang clearly throughout the venue as she sang. Although her voice sounded light and carried a sweetness, she had no problem with emotional delivery. Her guitar skills were no joke as she easily delivered each performance.

Continuing on, Parden’s “emotion journey,” she played a number of songs from her musical career, from “The Gambler,” a song she wrote at 19 years old, to “Who Did You Leave For Me,” which was released just two months ago.

To end her opening act, Parden slowed her tempo down for “These Are the Times,” An unreleased song she penned to honor a favorite artist of hers.

“I’ll leave you with this song,” Parden said. “It’s a brand-new song for me which I wrote while trying to pay homage to Chet Baker, who I admire and is really one of the only jazz [artists] I listen to.”

Matthew Perryman Jones took to the stage, accompanied by Parden on backup vocals, producer Josh Kaler on drums and Eric Cole on the bass,to play “Happy,” the first track off of his newest album, “The Waking Hours” which was released last Friday.

Next up was his newest single, “Lovers in Another Life” which featured a lively drum beat that picked up the tempo and energy of the room. The song carried evident classic rock influences and was met with a large applause.

Before continuing on with the show, Jones commented on the arrangement of his audience, encouraging them to move closer together in order to create a closer atmosphere.

“Honestly, this is kind of weird for me. Let’s get a nice little intimate situation going here,” Jones said as he moved the room around.

Jones sang “Anything Goes,” an upbeat song about “not keeping silent when s*** happens.” Next was “The Waking Hours,” his newest album’s title song which was inspired by his daughters.

“[Anything Goes] took a while to write and to get it out,” Jones said. “Waking Hours was done while thinking about my three wonderful daughters. I wanted to put into words what I wished for them and how I wanted them to follow their own songs.”

He continued to play songs off of “The Waking Hours”’ track list before giving his band a short break where he asked the crowd for song requests.

The first request played was a song from his 2015 EP of the same name, “Cold Answer.” This was followed by the calming acoustic style song, “Table for Two” after which Jones playfully called his band back.

“If my band is somewhere within earshot I would like you to come play music with me,” Jones said.

Next up was “Wrestling Tigers,” a title the audience definitely enjoyed as much as the song itself. The song highlighted bright notes paired with whimsical lyrics. Later, Jones mentioned that it was the 10-year anniversary of his third album, “Swallow the Sea”, and played a set of songs from his earlier days.

The energy of the room shot up once more as Jones and his band played “Waking the Dead” which had the band rocking out on stage with Jones to the upbeat folk-rock song.

After a great reception from the crowd, the rest of the band left the stage and Jones shifted gears to end the show by hopping off stage and borrowing Parden’s acoustic guitar to play a cover of “Take It with Me,” by singer-songwriter Tom Waits.

“I figured since we’re in such an intimate environment, let’s switch it up,” Jones said. “Anybody here know Tom Waits? Well, my take on this song of his is that it tells us to be fully present in moments that show up in our lives. It’s just, sort of, a matter of paying attention.”

The end of the show was meaningful and raw, and the audience got a real sense of who Jones is as an artist.

The moment garnered a standing ovation and prolonged applause to which he replied by thanking everyone for coming out.

Jones worked great with the rest of his band, keeping a lighthearted dynamic even when playing songs of the opposite nature. The voice harmonies between him and Parden were well done and sounded natural, and the instrumentals were fun, engaging and flowed well together.

Overall, the entire show played out in a very real, unscripted way. The highlights of this stop on Jones’s tour, aside from what is mentioned above, were the conversations he had with the crowd and his band in between songs as well as the stories he told.