VANESSA COLLIER is a US soul and blues singer who also plays a mean sax. Born down in Dallas, Texas, she’s won a slew of awards. Here’s just some of ‘em – three Blues Music Awards for “Horn Player of the Year”, and a fourth BMA for “Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year”, twelve Blues Music Award Nominations (BMAs), Blues Blast Award winner for “Horn Player of the Year” in 2022 and 2023, First Place for lyrics in the International Songwriting Competition, Best of 2014 Blues Breaker on Dan Aykroyd’s BluesMobile! Wow! The Berklee College of Music graduate also has five critically acclaimed albums to her name. Sadly, for such a talent, she’s not that well-known in the UK and Europe. Maybe that might change with the release of her sixth LP, ‘Do It My Own Way’. (due September 13th).
The concise 8 tracker, the LP delivers eight songs – all orignals, with the focus cut being the delightful ‘Wild As A Rainstorm’ – a superb slice of timeless soul music. A poignant song, the message in the music is self-empowerment and Ms Collier tells us that the highly personal song was inspired by her own experiences. Adding a little more heft to the track is the organ playing of soul session legend, the Rev Charles Hodges – yes, he of Al Green fame.
Elsewhere, things like the album title track delivers a rocky and bluesy sound (think Bonnie Raitt), ‘Warrior’ is a melding of folk/blues while ‘Rosetta’ is old time gospel (a tribute to Rosetta Thorpe). Yes, plenty of variety – but the soul highlight is without doubt that lovely ‘Wild As A Rainstorm’.
