Kevin Moore—better known as Keb’ Mo’—is one of the rare and talented gentlemen who made the leap from anonymous studio / touring musician to legitimate musical star. 

The torchbearer of a blues tradition that stretches into the obscure depths of a long-distant American heartland, this three-time Grammy Award-winning guitarist will perform a 7:30 p.m. show on Sunday, Oct. 2 at the University at Buffalo Center for the Arts (UB North Campus, Amherst).  Tickets start at $27 and are available through Ticketmaster.

Keb’ Mo’ is touring in support of The Reflection, his the first new studio album in five years. The Reflection draws inspiration from the work of African-American “folk soul” singer/songwriters like Bill Withers, Bobby Womack, and Terry Callier and is a bit of a departure from the blues music that made Mo’ famous.  He wrote the album in collaboration with a diverse cast of characters that included more country-tinged artists like Melissa Manchester, Alan Rich, Vince Gill and Maia Sharp.

“I try to always have valuable information I can share with people,” Mo’ told Guitar World in a recent interview.  “I’m not claiming to be some sort of know-it-all, but sharing information that has been helpful to me, I just share and let people do what they wish with it and hopefully some other people can come along and help reinforce those ideas—if they are really true ideas. I just try to be a conduit and messenger of the collective, so to speak. It’s a sheer labor of love and I can’t say it’s the best album I’ve ever made, but it’s the one I’ve worked the hardest on.”

Mo’ is famous for his love of guitars—according to his own website, “...he mostly plays on a red custom Fender Stratocaster which has the particularity to feature two single-coil pickups, and one humbucker and was much modified from a regular Stratocaster model. On stage, he prefers a Red Hamer guitar with Gibson P-100 pickups.”

Want to hear The Reflection?  Check out the listening party online.  It don’t cost nothin.’