For Bella Pike, fourth-year exercise science major at Ball State University, music has been something she’s always been attached to. Coming from a family with a strong history and pride in music, the Yorktown, Indiana native has been singing and playing instruments since she was young.
Her love of music, along with people pushing her to succeed and giving her opportunities, like her high school band director, led her to learn how to play 11 instruments.
She began singing publicly at the Yorktown American Legion when she was 15 before joining her first band, MARS.
Now a part of the band The Collectors, Pike pursues her passion for music performing live with her bandmates Flint Robbins and Hayden Arnett. The band performs live in the Delaware County area, primarily in American Legions and similar venues.
Though she is an exercise major with plans to pursue her doctorate and become a physical therapist, Pike said music will always be a part of her life.
“I have never foreseen a future for myself without music in it. It's been such a massive stone in my life, in many ways. It's been a motivator, and it's been my rock,” Pike said. “It's one of those things that, at the end of the day, you can always go and sit with an instrument in your hands and just do whatever you want.”
Emily Hayes of the band Veridical Muse, solo-artist Ashley Gray and Heather Collins of Lovesick Moan express a similar passion for music.
Two years ago, Hayes taught herself to play piano while volunteering at The Common Market. Always having had an interest in music, Hayes also learned to help teach her daughter and relate to their shared love of music.
“I just kind of float around and sing whatever pops in, pops out, and she's the same way, which is really cool. It's kind of like seeing a little miniature mirror,” she said.
Like Pike, Hayes got her start in live music because someone gave her an opportunity.
Her opportunity came from “Doc. Peterson,” known professionally as Dr. John Peterson. The former music hall owner and Open Door Health Services doctor, who performs every Friday at The Common Market, invited Hayes to sing and play the piano.
Ever since then, Hayes never misses a “Doc Night” and will sing a couple of songs with him and the band.
After a performance with Peterson, Mike Kerrigan approached her regarding a band he and Jerry Hawk were trying to form. With Kerrigan on drums, Jerry being the guitarist and Hayes singing, they created Veridical Muse in May 2024.
“The number one rule that we have is that everyone in the band has to have no ego, and so, the music that we play is not to support our own egos,” she said. “It's just to spread love and joy and music and truth.”
Like Hayes, Gray and Collins’ music careers have connections with Doc Peterson.
Paralleling each other, both women worked at Doc’s Music Hall while they were establishing their music careers. When Gray moved out of her old apartment, Collins moved in and started working with Doc.
Gray’s career began in Muncie in 2002 at venues like the Heorot and Doc’s Music Hall, but she eventually moved to Philadelphia in December 2011, joining the live music scene there as a solo artist.
“It's been a very progressive journey and a fulfilling one,” Gray said. “I consider myself very fortunate to make a living at my art.”
While in Philadelphia, Gray took a break from her music career raising her two boys as a single mother. What got her back in the industry was another woman, Samantha Seider.
During summer 2019, Seider was planning a women’s event, Women of Rock in Philadelphia, and Seider asked Gray to do a 20-minute set.
“That singular event got the fire burning again for me to want to get back out to work,” Gray said. “When I went and played that 20-minute set, [it] made me realize like, ‘Oh my God, I really missed this. I need this. I need something else in my life, other than babies.’”
This event gave Gray the idea to start a similar, female-artist-centric festival in Muncie. The outdoor concerts she organized with Mike Martin, owner of The Common Market, gave people a form of escapism during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At one of these outdoor concerts, Gray watched Raye Hodgson of the Oxford Baking Company and Pike with The Collectors perform.
“It was actually watching Raye and Bella play and then thinking about the women's event — the Women of Rock — that got me back out into the scene. That got the wheels turning for me to think of doing … an exclusively women-fronted festival back in Muncie,” she said. “I thought to myself, ‘I know there are more women in the area who play music, who could benefit from an all-female festival like the one that got me back out into the scene.’”
With the help of Collins, the two women started the Maybelle Music Festival to provide a space to support other female music artists and a platform for new musicians.
The festival received its namesake from Mother Maybelle Carter, the first well-known female instrumentalist in country music; Ma Rainey, the “Mother of the Blues;” and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the “Godmother of Rock and Roll.”
“[Maybelle is] not political. It's not a feminist festival. It's about celebrating women in music and the sensitivity and rawness of women in music,” Collins said.
To Hayes, Maybelle provided her a space to see other successful female musicians and learn from them, as well as providing her with a sense of community.
“You don't understand how important it is until you are in a room of musicians, and you're the only woman there, and I am the only woman in my band. It's not because we don't want other women in the band. It's just because there's a lot of men [who] want to be musicians,” Hayes said. “To see women who are taking on their dreams and actually taking the steps that are necessary to continuing that passion for themselves, that's really inspiring.”
Pike echoed Hayes’ sentiment, adding that Maybelle provides local artists a moment to network and grow their craft.
“I've never experienced sexism due to my position in the band, but there's still a condescending air. There will be a couple of old guys who will come up to you and ask you to name 20 songs off … It's like, ‘I'm not here for trivia. I'm just here to have fun,’ and knowing that other women have been there and have, hopefully, been able to scare that energy away with their understanding of music is always just so comforting,” Pike said.
“Maybelle Flower Power” will be held April 19 at the Room 5 Piano Bar at 7 p.m. and is a promotional event to support the fifth annual Maybelle Festival, which will be held Oct. 4 at the Elm Street Brewing Company from 2 to 10 p.m.
Contact Hannah Amos via email at hannah.amos@bsu.edu or on X @Hannah_Amos_394.
Read More
The Score-CARD Jan. 26 through Feb. 1
By Staff Reports / 1 hours agoA recap of Ball State athletics scores during the week of Jan. 26 through Feb. 1
A journey from bill to law
By Shelby Anderson / 4 hours agoHow does a bill become a law? Here are the five simple steps:
Muncie Central drops third-straight with loss to Greenfield-Central
By David Moore / 14 hours agoThe Muncie Central Bearcats dropped their third-straight with a 68-39 loss to Greenfield-Central.
