RALEIGH - Some people just make it look too easy. Like Stevie Wonder, who is such an incredible virtuoso that it's almost hard to appreciate just how brilliant he is. Wonder probably has to work just as hard as his contemporaries, but the difference is that music appears to pour out of him effortlessly.

On Thursday night, Wonder rolled into Raleigh's RBC Center with a show that was part concert, part recital and part be-in. It was long on sentiment that would seem hippie-dippie, but Wonder just believed and embodied it so sincerely that everybody in the audience was prepared to go along with anything he had in mind.

It was an eclectic show that covered a lot of reference points. Like Axl Rose, he made the audience wait (the show started nearly an hour late). Like Bruce Springsteen, he played a 2 1/2-hour marathon. Like U2, he evangelized. Like Prince, he displayed stunning virtuosity. And like James Brown, he presided over a killer 11-piece backup band, maestro-style.

Wonder entered the stage to applause, guided by his daughter/backup singer Aisha Morris. He opened with a short speech, giving thanks to God as well as the doctor in Winston-Salem who saved his life after his near-fatal 1973 car wreck in North Carolina. Then he explained the genesis of his latest tour, which was inspired by the death of his mother last year.

Getting out and playing for people is therapy for Wonder, and he soon got down to business. "Love's In Need of Love Today" opened the show, just as it did in his 1976 landmark "Songs in the Key of Life," and we were off on an impressive musicology lesson.

For one thing, it was remarkable that someone could play 150 minutes without covering all his big hits -- "Isn't She Lovely," "Boogie On Reggae Woman," "Part-Time Lover," "Fingertips -- Pt 2)" and "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" were among the missing. For another, the sheer breadth of styles on display was amazing.

Wonder is a performer who simply refuses to acknowledge boundaries or differences, whether musical, religious, political or social. Thursday's show ranged from jazzy riffing to churchy spirit, touching on steady rolling reggae, pure-pop giddiness, deep soul and hilarious vocal imitations of everybody from Amy Winehouse to some Italian guy from New York. There was also a remarkable name-that-tune interlude, during which Wonder played snatches of the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, P-Funk and even the Archies on a keyboard and microphone rigged for a "talkbox" effect.

"Visions" was an epic 10-minute workout with a closing we-can-be-one spiel -- a dynamite political speech. Wonder structured "Ribbon in the Sky" as an audience singalong to see whether the Raleigh crowd was better than the previous night's Charlotte crowd (of course we were!). He even turned "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours," one of his signature songs, into a twangy country hoedown, and darned if it didn't work perfectly.

Of course, it helped that Wonder has one of the best catalogs of the past century to draw from. His primo '70s-vintage songs haven't aged a bit and still sound as sleek and contemporary as the day they were cut. "Living for the City," "Golden Lady," "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing," "Overjoyed" and "Sir Duke" were all spectacular.

Start to finish, it was a great, great night.

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