Four-time Blues Music Award Winner for "Horn Player of the Year" (2019, 2020, 2024) and "Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year" (2022), Vanessa Collier, returns home to Columbia, MD for two nights at Collective Encore on Jan 30th and Jan 31st. Collier brings a powerful stage presence, mean and funky growling saxophones, soul-stirring vocals, and empowering and witty songwriting steeped in blues, funk, and soul. 

“There’s a young lady [Vanessa Collier] came onstage with me, I forget where I was, but she’s playing an alto saxophone, and man, she was amazing.” Those are the words of Buddy Guy in a recent issue of American Blues Scene, describing an impromptu performance with Vanessa Collier on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise.

Midwest Record exclaims, “This bluesy singing sax player knows how to bring the slinking funk to her captivating, award-winning sound that has echoes in young Bonnie Raitt/Maria Muldaur vocal sounds…Killer stuff on every level, this sounds like one of the reasons you first became a music fan. Killer stuff.” and AXS.Com declares that she “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...”