We are excited to bring Vanessa Collier to the 2025 Muncie Three Trails Music Series! You can enjoy them LIVE at a FREE CONCERT on Saturday, August 23rd at the Brown Family Amphitheater at Ball State University! All of our concerts are open to all ages. The music starts at 7p, with opening act The Fierce, so bring your lawn chairs and have some fun with us! Come early and come hungry for our local food/drink vendors too!
🎼 Explore the Trails, Enjoy the Music! 🎶
Learn more about the 2025 Series at our website here:
https://www.MuncieThreeTrails.com
Vanessa Collier is a master musician and instrumentalist, weaving funk, soul, rock, and blues into powerful performances and dynamite recordings. With soulful vocals, searing saxophone, and witty songwriting, Vanessa is blazing a trail, racking up an impressive arsenal of honors, and has already singled herself out as an artist of distinction and one we would all do well to watch. She is a 15-time Blues Music Awards (BMA) nominee and a 4-time winner, including in 2024 for Horn Player of the Year (her third time winning that award). Her 2025 BMA nominations include Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year (an award she won in 2022) and Contemporary Blues Album of the Year for Do It My Own Way.
What is impressive is not simply the accolades she has accumulated so far, it’s the fact that she has accumulated all these honors even while her career is still in its infancy. Having first picked up the saxophone at the age of nine, Collier embarked on her road to recognition at the famed Berklee College of Music, earning dual degrees in Performance and Music Production &
Engineering. While still completing her degree, Collier landed a position touring with Joe Louis Walker for a year and a half before Joe encouraged her to strike out on her own. And strike out she did.�These days, Collier spends much of her time on the road, performing at some of the most prestigious music festivals in the world, and she has also released six critically acclaimed albums, including her latest, Do It My Own Way, which finds her stretching beyond her blues roots to included influences by soul artists like Mavis Staples, Sharon Jones, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin.
“I am driven to do this because I find it a total form of expression and connection,” she explains. “I love connecting with an audience and feeling their energy and I hope to inspire people to follow their dreams and passions, to find what brings them joy, and then to pursue it doggedly.” Vanessa also takes that message to young people as she runs clinics across the country and is active with Blues in the Schools programs.
Vanessa Collier blends rock, soul and blues and is a winner of three Blues Music Awards including a win for 2022 Award for Contemporary Blues Female Artist. This year Vanessa is busy touring summer festivals highlighted by shows at the Rochester International Jazz Festival, RBC Ottawa Blues Festival, Winthrop Rhythm & Roots Festival and a two week tour of Europe.
Vanessa graduated with a dual degree from the prestigious Berklee College of Music and was invited to play alongside Annie Lennox and Willie Nelson at Berklee’s commencement address. She also worked with Kathy Mattea, Bill Cooley, Patrice Rushen, and many more visiting artists while studying at Berklee. Her influences include among others Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones and The Wood Brothers.
“The singer and sax player might as well go ahead and add another shelf to her trophy case because clearly, she’s going to need it. With a voice that often recalls that of blues-rock stalwart Bonnie Raitt, Collier turns up the heat… ” – AXS.com
"The award-winning, soulful songstress offers the whole package on her sophomore album – top-notch songwriting and sultry, R&B-soaked vocals that are complemented by her sizzling saxophone. The rich, smoky nuances of her voice will win over any music lover, and her multi-instrumental background only adds to her appeal. ” – Ink19.com
"My favorite musician, performer, and human being…Vanessa Collier is the hardest working woman in show business. Her tenor sax solos bring an overture of sonic bliss." – Elmore Magazine
“There’s a young lady [Vanessa Collier] came onstage with me, forget where I was, but she’s playing an alto saxophone, and man, she was amazing.” – Buddy Guy
– Live Album to be released in October
– Winner of three Blues Music Awards including a win for 2022 Award for Contemporary Blues
Learn more at her website here:
www.VanessaCollier.com
The Fierce is a central Indiana indie band featuring a unique variety of original music spanning multiple genres. Sally and Lyn Fierce have been writing and playing music together for over 25 years. They began playing their own individual, original tunes and eventually collaborated on tunes together. Their initial start was in Texas, and after a move to Indiana in late 2006, they had a first go at putting their original music out there in Indiana in 2009 with their band "Acoustic Allusion". The Fierce became a new beginning in early 2021. They released 10 of their tunes in early 2023 which can be found on all major streaming services. New tunes are set to release in early 2025.
Learn more at the band's website here:
www.TheFierceMusic.com
We hope to see all of you at this show and at all of our 2025 season of FREE CONCERTS in Muncie, Indiana!
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