I know it's a well-beaten cliché, but John Hiatt really does sound like an old American car cruising fast on a straightaway of open road with a little dust kicking up in the rearview mirror—like the granddaddy of Bruce Springsteen and the rocker cousin of Willie Nelson. Springsteen and Nelson have covered Hiatt songs, by the way, as have Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt, and the Neville Brothers. He's the real deal, singing about boxcars and road trips, wild nights and broken hearts: "But the master of disaster gets tangled in his Telecaster/He can't play it any faster/When he plays the blues/When he had the heart to ask her/And every note just shook the plaster/Now he's just a mean old bastard/When he plays the blues."
BRENDAN KILEY

Tickets go on sale 3/13 at 10 a.m.