Editor’s Note: In celebration of Women’s History Month, You Sing I Write is highlighting female country artists and songwriters throughout March.
I’ve interviewed and seen Caylee Hammack perform live several times over the years. My introduction to the country newcomer was during her standout performance at Country Radio Seminar in 2019 during the Universal Music Group Nashville “Team UMG” luncheon at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. The way she commanded the stage for a jaw-dropping two-song set was unlike anything I’d seen from a new artist and it prompted me to pitch her for my feature on emerging country talent at Billboard at the time.
Below is an excerpt of our first chat. Hammack’s debut album, If It Wasn’t For You, was released last year. Her cover of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” dropped today.
Caylee Hammack has been singing in public since her early teens. At 13, a conversation with her father while the two were watching Elf sparked the idea to audition for a local talent show. She’d go on to perform around her home state of Georgia and Nashville’s Lower Broadway before signing a record deal with Universal Music Group Nashville in late 2018.
A dynamic singer and equally memorable songwriter, Hammack’s soulful vocals and descriptive lyrics shine on her debut single “Family Tree.”
“I’ve always had a pull for music,” she tells me over the phone during a recent radio tour. “Even when I tried to run from it because it’s a very big risk to follow a dream like this…every single time God seemed to pull me back to it.”
What was the first song you ever wrote?
I had a medical scare at 16. They thought it was cancer and once they removed the tumor I was bed-bound for a few weeks. [My parents] gave me a computer and I sat with my little MacBook and started writing songs. I wrote a song called ‘Addictive’ about the pain pills I was on to get through the recovery and related it back to the little bit of love I knew at 16. Slowly but surely I kept writing. The tennis scholarships that were starting to line up for me my junior year were whisked away because of my inability to move from back surgery. The only thing I truly had left after that surgery was music.
What’s the story behind your debut single “Family Tree?”
The best way to introduce yourself is family. When I started making this record… I kept going to “Family Tree.” Out of the hundreds of songs I’ve written that was the one that felt the most uniquely me and personal. The inspiration behind it is my sister started smoking cigarettes. I went home and when I went to hug my sister Molly she smelled like cigarettes. In the next few days she’d sneak outside. One time I followed her, and she had a garden glove on her hand and she’s standing in front of the fan trying to blow the cigarette smoke away from her. We went to the gas station a few days after that and they didn’t have any Camel Crushes. I was like, “Dang Molly, you must’ve smoked them out in this county.” In my head that line, something about it felt good to say and it was honest.
I went into a [writing session] with Gordie Sampson and Troy Verges a few weeks after and I had that line written in a note and I said it to them. I was like, “Sister smoked all the Camels in the county last week/ She cleaned out the 7-Eleven sneaking in smelling like nicotine.” Gordie and Troy looked at me and they were like, “Wait, that’s kind of cool. Tell us about your family.” I started talking about all the things in my family that are their little quirks.
For more of my interview with Caylee Hammack, visit Billboard.