Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Gregory Porter will take the stage at the Clyde Theatre on Wednesday, Feb. 16, at 7:30 p.m.

Attendees might hear a few tracks from the 50-year-old’s latest double-album, Still Rising.

“Putting together this record, making the new songs, and selecting from my catalog things to reintroduce,” Porter told The Boston Globe about his mindset heading into the record. “Shortly after (my brother) passed, I was just looking for something to make me feel normal again.

“Sometimes you write for the consumption of other people,” he added. “But I found myself needing the lyrics that I said, and needing those things to lift me from one of the darkest periods of my life.”

Glide Magazine said of his latest album: “Let’s explore the new songs first. You may have heard the single ‘I Will,’ about looking to our elders for guidance during dark times. It fits beautifully with Porter’s unfailingly optimistic outlook, one that might be schmaltzy in the hands of other vocalists, but none of today’s singers have found that special combination of jazz, soul, gospel, and pop like Porter has.”

Finding His Look

Fans can also expect to see the two-time Grammy Award-winner wearing his iconic hat on stage at The Clyde. He has accepted the cap as part of his image.

“It started off covering some scars from surgery, but it’s become my style,” Porter told Metro. “I was in Denver, and it was cold. I was wearing five layers of clothing, and I wore a hat. It warmed up, and I thought, ‘Actually, this is comfortable, this is a look.’

“I started to sing in a jazz club in Denver, and people were like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s the guy with the hat.’ So it became a thing.”

Mother Knows Best

Porter grew up in Bakersfield, California. According to his official site, he fell in love with the music of Nat King Cole, Donny Hathaway, and Stevie Wonder.

“It was through his mother’s record collection that he fell under the spell of Cole, learning early on how to imitate him,” the website said.

In fact, Cole influenced Porter so much that the artist’s fifth studio album was titled Nat King Cole & Me.

The site also says Porter was a gifted athlete, leaving high school with a football scholarship to San Diego State University. An injury to his shoulder, however, minimized his chances for a career in sports.

His mother not only motivated Porter to pursue music through her own rhythmic tastes, but also through her words.

Porter recalled a conversation he had in early adulthood while his mother was ill.

He told the Observer, “She said to me, ‘Your singing voice is the best thing you have, so don’t forget it.’ I was trying to assure her that she did a good job, that she raised a stand-up, regular guy and she was like, ‘No! Be risky!’ And so I took that.”

Award Winner

That singing voice his mother encouraged him to use will be on full display in Fort Wayne.

Through his career, Porter has won a number of highly respected awards. In 2014, his third studio album, Liquid Spirit, won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album. The 2017 iteration of the annual award ceremony found Porter with another title in the same category for his fourth studio album, Take Me to the Alley.