John Hiatt & The Combo at The Saban Theatre

American rock guitarist, pianist, singer, and songwriter John Hiatt has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including New Wave, blues and country. Hiatt has been nominated for eleven Grammy Awards and has been awarded a variety of other distinctions in the music industry.  Hiatt is 40 years into his musical career, and along the way, his songs have attracted many other singers, through whom some have gained a wider world of fans via other artists’ versions —Rosanne Cash’s “Pink Bedroom” and most famously Bonnie Raitt’s hit version of “Thing Called Love.” And in recent years he’s done a series of shows with Lyle Lovett, “our little Smothers Brothers comedy show,” that’s brought out other spins on his art, though elements already familiar to those who’ve been there all along. Alternately bemused and profound, he’s a self-aware chronicler of both his own and others’ stumbles and epiphanies, the tales richer with each step forward.

Celebrating decades of recording and touring that have nearly singlehandedly reshaped the definition and scope of the blues via the infusion of exotic sounds from the Caribbean, Africa and South Pacific, the two-time Grammy winning singer, songwriter, film composer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist was feted with the Lifetime Achievement for Performance Award at the 13th Annual Americana Honors and Awards.  By approaching the blues from a global perspective, Mahal presents it as part of a broader musical palette, a world canvas. Using traditional country blues as a starting place, Mahal perfumes the pot by mixing a spicy concoction of Afrocentric roots music, a blues gumbo kissed by reggae, Latin, R&B, Cajun, Caribbean rhythms, gospel, West African folk, jazz, calypso, and Hawaiian slack key. The savory dish he serves is both a satisfying and uplifting stew that actually transforms 'singin' the blues’ into
something to be very happy about.

Doors 7pm.  Show 8:00pm.

$48 / $68 / $78 / $88 + applicable fees

Under 18 Must Be Accompanied by a Paying Adult.