Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals perform at the Morris Performing Arts Center

SOUTH BEND — Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 13 at the Morris Performing Arts Center, 211 N. Michigan St.

A native of California born Oct. 28, 1969, Harper grew up surrounded by the activists, poets, artists and musicians —Chris Darrow, Leonard Cohen, Jackson Browne and Taj Mahal — who patronized his maternal grandparents’ music store.

Since the 1994 release of his debut album, “Welcome to the Cruel World,” the guitarist has released 18 studio albums, including collaborations with The Blind Boys of Alabama, Relentless 7, Charlie Musselwhite and Ellen Harper, his mother.

Harper released his most recent album, “Wide Open Light,” in June.

He describes “Wide Open Light” as “a family of songs he's written where each track is a close relative to the next. It’sdeliberately minimalist and the songs themselves do as much of the heavy lifting as the production.”

In addition to his own music and producing albums by artists such as Mavis Staples, Rickie Lee Jones, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Natalie Maines and Ziggy Marley, Harper recently appeared in the AppleTV+ series “Extrapolations,” ananthology series based in the near future when the effects of climate change have become embedded in society.

The show’s cast includes Meryl Streep, Kit Harington, Forest Whitaker, Keri Russell and Ed Norton.

Tickets are $135-$45.

For more information, call 574-235-9190 or visit morriscenter.org.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Ben Harper performs at the Morris in South Bend