Shawn Colvin plays at the Sanders Theatre in Cambridge March 22

Singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin has been in multiple bands playing pop and rock and western swing; she’s traveled the bar singer route covering music by, among others, Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins, and Bonnie Raitt; and she’s won multiple Grammy awards by writing, recording, and performing her own folkie-poppy compositions.

When she returns to Sanders Theatre in Cambridge on March 22, it’ll be a solo show. She’ll have her Shawn Colvin Signature Model Martin guitar strapped around her neck and, if the mood is right, she’ll sit down to accompany herself on piano for a tune or two.

Those Grammys happened in 1991, for her first album “Steady On” (Best Contemporary Folk Recording), and in 1998, for “Sunny Came Home” (both Record of the Year and Song of the Year). But Colvin had been listening to and playing music for a long time before that.

“My father was a massive Kingston Trio fan, and we had their records,” she said by phone from her home in Austin, Texas. “He also played guitar and banjo, and had two friends he would get together with at home, and they would pretend to be the Kingston Trio. We also had records by Pete Seeger, and a lot of musicals, like ‘The Sound of Music’ and ‘My Fair Lady.” We went to church, so there was a lot of church music, and I was in the junior choir,” said Colvin, who grew up in Illinois and London, Ontario. She stopped for a moment, and added, “Then the Beatles came out.”

That was around the time that Colvin started taking piano lessons, which she now recalls not being “particularly wild about,” but is grateful that she did, as it enabled her to start making up her own songs while pretending to be practicing.

A few years later her father taught her to play guitar.

“There was a six-string guitar in our home, and a banjo. We also had a four-string guitar. My father taught my older brother to play the four-string. But he went on to play the violin. Then we got a six-string classical guitar and he taught my mother to play that because she wanted to learn ‘Edelweiss.’ I was kind of in the background, waving my hand in the distance. So, at 10 years old I started getting lessons from my dad on that four-string guitar. Then I got a Mel Bay guitar book and started learning every chord I could find, and eventually I progressed to adding those two strings to my repertoire.”

Over the years, she also progressed from singing covers to writing and singing original songs, from sounding like other performers to cultivating her own voice, and from working in bands to taking the stage alone, but always being open to go back and forth between those formats.

“I could always sing,” she said. “But I was a big copycat; I could sound like Judy Collins, I could sound like Bonnie Raitt, I could sound like Joni Mitchell. But I guess I felt that I could recognize beauty in my voice since I quit imitating people as much. I developed something that, although I’m sure you can hear influences, is more my own, with my own material.”

Though she’ll still include cover songs – a upcoming show in New York is featuring an all-Van Morrison set list – Colvin keeps it mostly original, sometimes throwing in brand-new songs that no one has yet heard.

“I’ve done that many times,” she said. “That was the beauty of when I used to play at Club Passim. I was such a newbie writer that my edict to myself was every time you show up here, you’ve got to have something new. I needed the motivation to keep writing because that’s the hardest thing I do. For the most part the people who played that room were songwriters, so I felt like I was cheating people if I kept doing a lot of covers. So it really helped me write, and I would play new songs there all the time.”

She’s quite happy that the Sanders show is a solo gig, but it’s not been very long since she fronted a group.

“I’ve played with many bands, but the first major band tour I’d done in several years was in 2017, and I had a blast,” she said. “But I’m very comfortable doing a solo show. I think it’s a compelling format, when you can pull it off and embrace the intimacy.”

OK, so Colvin has sung with bands and without bands. She can get poppy and at times even have a hint of rock happening. Her lyrics can be humorous, sarcastic, or filled with imagery. Is it proper to refer to her simply as a folk singer?

“You know, I used to rail against the folk singer label,” she said. “But I’ve accepted it. I just think of folk singers more as topical and protest-oriented or consciousness raising. That’s just not ever what I’ve been. I’m kind of a personal politics sort of writer. But, you know, if you play acoustic guitar by yourself and sing songs by yourself, so be it. I’ll be a folk artist. That’s fine.”

Celebrity Series of Boston presents Shawn Colvin at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge on March 22 at 8 p.m. Tickets: $30-$65. Info: 617-496-2222.

Upcoming concerts and club dates

March 16:

Jazz drummer T.S. Monk leads his band in a night of bop at Scullers in Boston. (8 p.m.)

Vocalist and songwriter Kat Edmonson will perform some of the jazzy, romantic tunes from her most recent album “Old Fashioned Gal” at City Winery in Boston. (7 p.m.)

March 17:

The Red Hot Chilli Pipers bring their Scottish-based pop-rock, which they’ve labeled “bagrock” (yes, bagpipe rock) to the Hanover Theatre in Worcester. (4 p.m.)

March 19:

Waltham-based Brother Toaster mixes together slacker rock, psych rock, and jangle pop at Atwood’s Tavern in Cambridge. The Blues Dream Box opens. (9 p.m.)

March 21:

Damian McGinty, former member of Celtic Thunder, makes the trip from his home in Derry, Northern Ireland, to premiere songs from his new album “Young Forever” at Amazing Things Arts Center in Framingham. (8 p.m.)

Liz Frame & the Kickers offer some country and bluegrass in their Americana sound at The Burren in Somerville. (7:30 p.m.)

It’s all about the harmonies between Chuck Costa and Mira Stanley in The Sea The Sea, when the duo plays at Club Passim in Cambridge. (8 p.m.)

March 22:

Former TV game show host John Davidson continues his second career as a song-and-story man at The Center for Arts in Natick. (8 p.m.)

Singer-writer-guitarist and Girls’ Night Out alumnus Wendy Sobel will be accompanied by vocalist Sally Sweitzer at Jasper Hill Restaurant in Millis. (8 p.m.)

Ben Mabry and Brent Holloman AKA Beta Radio blend vocal harmonies with acoustic and electric guitars, piano, banjo, and assorted additional instruments at Café 939 in Boston. (8 p.m.)

Ed Symkus can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.