Vanessa is a North Shore kid from Auckland New Zealand whose career as a bass player has taken her all over the world.

She moved to Nashville TN in 2014 with the multi-Tui Award-winning New Zealand duo Tattletale Saints and currently tours and is musical director for multi-Grammy-nominated Americana artist, Brandy Clark.

She is an in-demand touring and session bass player in Nashville and is endorsed by Fender, Aguilar, Fishman, and D’addario.

Vanessa formed Tattletale Saints with acclaimed New Zealand songwriter Cy Winstanley in 2012 and the now Nashville-based band won the NZ Music Award for Folk in 2014 for their debut album How Red Is the Blood, produced by Grammy award winner Tim O’Brien, and again in 2021 for their third studio album, Dancing Under The Dogwoods.

In 2020 Vanessa started coaching musicians on career strategy and creative marketing, drawing on the 20 years of experience she has as an independent musician to empower female musicians with creative marketing skills for life.

She writes a column called Road Rules for New Zealand Musician Magazine and regularly posts on her own blog, Music Mindset on Substack.