Mavis Staples and Gregory Porter

The New Year at Segerstrom Center welcomes two of America’s most versatile vocalists who will perform a special double bill concert on January 20 in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. The evening begins with Grammy® Award-winning Mavis Staples, the iconic and influential vocalist who has so brilliantly performed in nearly all genres of music and is a respected Civil Rights activist. She will perform her 60-year-plus career that includes songs from her brand new album, Livin' on a High Note (which is how she’s also feeling these days). The album features songs from some of today’s leading songwriters, including: Ben Harper, Aloe Blacc, Valerie June and many others.

The evening will continue with Grammy Award-winning, vocalist and songwriter Gregory Porter (this concert was previously scheduled for May 8, 2016), who returns to the Center performing from his newest album, Take Me to the Alley, which features the single, “Holding On.” With this track, Porter presents his decidedly different version of the “Disclosure” single that he was the featured vocalist on and co-wrote for their album Caracal. “I decided to do the song the way that I would have recorded it on my record,” Porter says. “It’s a way of saying that a song is a song is a song. The lyrics and the intention of the song come through no matter what kind of bells and whistles are going on.”