Harrah’s Lake Tahoe brings singer, guitarist and songwriter José Feliciano, to the South Shore Room Nov. 14.

Feliciano is an eight-time Grammy Award winner and recipient of Billboard Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Feliciano’s musical career spans four decades. Born blind to humble beginnings in Lares, Puerto Rico, he began his love affair with music at the age of 3 when he first tapped on a tin cracker can to accompany his musician uncle. After immigrating to New York City at 5, Feliciano learned to play the concertina using a handful of records as a teacher. Wanting to expand his musical talent, he taught himself to play and then master the guitar with a gritty determination that surprised everyone.

At age 17, Feliciano began to play coffee houses in Greenwich Village to help out with his family’s finances. That same year he played his first professional engagement in Detroit.

His first major break occurred in 1966 in the Spanish music market after an amazing performance at the Mar del Plata Festival in Argentina. RCA executives encouraged Feliciano to stay in South America and record an album of Spanish music. The first single from that album, “Poquita Fe,” was a smash hit. Feliciano had taken long-established standards and made them brand new.

By the age of 23, Feliciano had earned five Grammy Award nominations and won two Grammy awards for his revival of The Doors hit “Light My Fire,” which rose to No. 1 on the pop charts in the U.S. and around the world. The second Grammy that year was for the best performance by a male vocalist.

This same year, 1968, Feliciano surprised American TV and radio audiences when he performed a “stylized” version of the national anthem at the fifth game of the World Series.

Feliciano earned his sixth Grammy Award in 1991 and is the only performer who has won Pop Music Awards in two language categories.  In 1997 Feliciano’s Americano album was nominated for a Grammy, marking his fifteenth nomination and in 1998, the Senor Bolero album earned him his sixteenth nomination. His love for the art shines through in his 2004 release with passionate and resonant vocals on Senor Bolero 2, the follow-up to his popular collection of Latin torch songs. The hit single “Lo Que Yo Contingo” (What I Had With You) made Billboard’s Top 40 in 2003.

His 2007 release, The Soundtrax of My Life, is completely self-penned and offers a totally unique recording of original material.  Recorded over a five year period, the album demonstrates why Feliciano is heralded as a legendary songwriter.  Feliciano won both a Grammy Award and a Latin Grammy in 2009 for the CD, Señor Bachata.

Fully embracing the digital age, Feliciano released two new English-language albums for digital download only from his personal websites, one dedicated to “American Classics,” including songs made famous by Frank Sinatra, and the other an instrumental homage to jazz guitar legend Django Reinhardt, who inspired him, and features Feliciano’s song “Djangoisms.”

José Feliciano is on stage in the legendary South Shore Room at 7:30pm; tickets are $45 plus fees. For more information and reservations, call 800.786.8208 or go to www.SouthShoreRoom.com.