Pardon Carla Morrison if she sounds a bit giddy about her newfound success. It’s just that the Mexican singer-songwriter did not expect her star to ascend so quickly.
“I know artists who have struggled for years to make it,” said Morrison, 27. “But it’s taken me only three years.”
Morrison, who appears at the Rialto Theatre Monday for her first Tucson show, burst out on the musical stage with her 2012 Latin Grammy winning “Déjenme Llorar” (Let Me Cry). It came about three years after her professional debut recording.
Morrison, however, understands that popularity among music fans can be fleeting, as can success.
“It’s a miracle,” she said in Spanish.
Her quick shot to critical success is attributed, in big part, to Morrison’s emotional voice and lyrics which have attracted comparisons to England’s Adele. The voices are different but both are unafraid of letting the raw emotions pour out. Morrison sings of heartbreak, lost love and hard-to-manage personal relationships.
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“I sing about whatever I see and feel,” said Morrison, in a recent telephone interview from Los Angeles.
Morrison, who lived in Phoenix for about six years while trying to launch her musical career, is equally comfortable speaking English. She was born and raised in the Mexican border town of Tecate, Baja California.
She grew up writing poetry and in her teens began writing lyrics. When she was 17, Morrison moved north and attended Mesa Community College studying music. It was not easy.
Music, the visceral part of it, she got. The theory part, not so much, she was told.
In 2009 she packed her bags, guitar and song ideas, and headed south to Mexico City. There her music jelled.
Her debut EP, “Aprendiendo a Aprender,” (Learning to Learn)” garnered attention in the Latino alt music world and the following year in 2010, her next EP “Mientras Tu Dormías,” (While You Slept) produced by another up and coming Mexican alternative singer-songwriter, Natalia Lafourcade, earned a Latin Grammy nomination.
In 2012, Morrison received four Latin Grammy nominations and collected two, Best Alternative Music Album and Album of the Year, for her first full-length recording, “Déjenme Llorar.”
Morrison, who has performed at major music festivals and sold-out venues, credits her creativity to her upbringing in a small town. There wasn’t much to do, she said. So she let her creativity take over and occupy her time.
But now, living in bustling Mexico City, she’ll let her creative juices come to her in a different way.
“I live life to the max.”
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