This independent-minded artist refuses to be pigeonholed and continues to blaze her own trail in the music business. This mindset is evidenced by the title of her latest release, Doing It My Own Way
By Robin Zimmerman
Vanessa Collier Interview
By Robin Zimmerman
Ever since Vanessa Collier burst onto the scene in 2014, her Chicago area appearances have been few and far between. She’s played a few times at Buddy Guy’s Legends, had a gig at Space and hit FitzGerald’s in 2023. In 2024, she graced the main stage at the Chicago Blues Festival in June and returned to the Riviera as the opener for Blues Traveler in late September.
It’s not that Collier doesn’t like the Windy City. Quite the contrary. She first fell in love with the Chi-Town vibe after accompanying her mom on business trips to the city. Once she became a breakout blues artist, playing on the Pritzker Stage was one of her dreams. During a recent phone interview, she still seemed to be on a Blues Fest high as she recalled her “amazing” experience.
She elaborated by saying, “I’ve been wanting to play that fest since basically when I started” Collier said about when she finally got up on the main stage, “It was surreal to have so many people around me who were super supportive” including having Shemekia Copeland and her family watching from the side of the stage. Collier added that, “I just felt like dreams were coming true and I reached a milestone.”
Vanessa Collier on the Pritzker Stage, Chicago Blues Festival 2024/Photo: Dianne Bruce Dunklau
Despite her rare appearances in Chicago, Collier seems keenly aware of the city’s vibrant food and music scene as she named-checked Eleven City Diner and said that she always tries to visit the Green Mill, “which is crazy since I am only in town for twelve hours or so.” She continued by saying that Chicago “has lots of good memories for me” with “some of the best people that follow me all over the country and if it wasn’t so cold, I would probably move there!”
I was able to catch up with Collier as she was getting ready to hit the road for some gigs in Florida and Texas with a stop at Antoine’s in Austin. Then Collier’s “Keep it Saxy” tour heads out to the west coast for several shows before taking off to Europe at the end of March.
With such a busy touring schedule, we felt fortunate to see her perform in Forest Park on February 6th, 2025. Collier had originally been booked to play at Robert’s West Side in September but that show had to be rescheduled due to conflicts with the Blues Traveler tour dates.
Vanessa Collier Band at Robert's West Side/ Photo: Michael Lepek
L to R: Aubrey McCrady, Vanessa, Byron Cage (not seen on drums), Justice Guevara
Following this frenetic, yet successful run in 2024, this vocal powerhouse and stellar saxophonist remains a hot draw on the cruise and festival circuit. After seeing her live in Robert’s lounge-like atmosphere, it’s easy to see why Collier continues to gain fans and followers. She certainly owned the room at Robert’s as she brought red-hot blues, soul and funk to the western suburbs. She also did a few country-flavored tunes while weaving in stories of how many of her powerful, self-penned songs came along.
This diverse set list was not surprising considering that Collier’s influences range from Bonnie Raitt and Norah Jones to Cannonball Adderly and Professor Longhair. Collier credits her saxophone teacher, the late Chris Vadala, with introducing her to so many forms of music. Vadala played with Chuck Mangione for many years and was also the go-to sax player when B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross and others came to town.
Collier said her former teacher was a true woodwind specialist who “fed me foundation on the horn.” She added that “Chris is the reason why I play and the reason why I love it… I got lucky.”
Photo: Michael Lepek
Her lucky streak continues, as Collier has won three Blues Music Awards for “Horn Player of the Year” and got the nod for “Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year” in 2022. Collier was recently nominated for “Horn Player of the Year,” “Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year” and the “B.B. King Entertainer of the Year” for 2024. All told, she has been nominated twelve times.
Despite all the blues awards, accolades, and praise, this independent-minded artist refuses to be pigeonholed and continues to blaze her own trail in the music business. This mindset is evidenced by the title of her latest release, Doing It My Own Way where she does it on her own in a big way. Collier wrote and arranged all the songs on the album, did all lead and background vocals and produced it to boot.
This multi-tasking extended to the many instruments she plays on Doing it My Own Way which includes acoustic and electric guitars, alto and tenor sax, and taking on the flute for the first time. Her subject matter ranges from an homage to Sister Rosetta Tharpe on “Rosetta” to the positive messaging of “Wild as a Rainstorm.” She’s especially emphatic on the title track as she proclaims that “I refuse to play by those rules… won’t even play the game cause I’ve got too much self-respect, Imma make my own way.”
Collier took a few cues from sax and horn players before her as “Doing It My Own Way” has that Memphis soul vibe with some Staple Singers grooves and harmonies mixed in. It’s a thirty-minute tour de force that is best put on repeat to capture every nuance.
Collier said that she has long been wanting to do a record that concentrated on the old soul and R& B sounds because “heavy on the horns is where my heart is, and I wanted to do a record to satisfy that.”
Although she was a top three finalist in the John Lennon songwriting competition in 2014, Collier believes that she has an improved technique on Doing it My Own Way. She credits this to following the “Object Writes” method, which promotes using all five senses in crafting songs and stories.
While this new release demands close scrutinization and many listens, Collier’s 90-minute live show at Robert’s ran the gamut from a funk dance party to a few story-telling interludes. Between making her sax “talk”, she discussed everything from proclaiming her love for Chicago to explaining why she penned “What Makes You Beautiful” to encourage and boost her younger sister’s self-esteem.
There is a considerable age gap between Collier and her three younger siblings so that’s why she wanted to convey that “it’s OK not being the talkative one or the one that everyone flocks to.” She added that “I just kind of always wanted to be a safe place for them to land. My mom has always been a safe place for me, and I want to be like her.”
Collier’s resume would also suggest that she is more than capable of landing on her feet in whatever direction she takes. She graduated from Berklee School of Music in 2013 with degrees in Performance and Music Production and Engineering. Soon, after getting her sheepskin, she was taking off to tour with Joe Louis Walker. It was Walker who encouraged her to go at it on her own and soon she was off!
Her touring schedule continued to ramp up and culminated in 2019 with over 120 shows. When the pandemic shut things down in 2020, Collier confessed that, “I didn’t touch music for seven months.” Instead, she did yoga, took long walks with her mom and even worked on a farm. She added that “I had been running myself ragged and that forced downtime was just what I needed.”
Now that Collier is back to logging many miles on the tour circuit, her signature pink and black kitten heel shoes also take a beating “from all that stomping around” at her high-energy shows. She said that “my grandmother bought me a pair for my junior prom that looked almost identical” to the current ones “that are the most comfortable shoes I own.”
With warmer weather on the horizon, one can only hope that Collier and those kitten heels land back in the Chicago area sometime soon.
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About the Author: Blues enthusiast Robin Zimmerman, a.k.a. Rockin' Robin, writes a Blues Blog and is a regular contributor to Chicago Blues Guide