Capitol Records Nashville’s Caylee Hammack is sharing more insight into her unique journey so far, as Rolling Stone’s original web series “Gigs To Glory” spotlights the singer/songwriter/producer as part of a three-episode feature. With Episode Two available to watch today here, Hammack opens up about some of the struggles she has faced along the way, including a house fire that destroyed almost all of her belongings bar a few significant items. The episode also sees Hammack performing as a part of Rolling Stone Live in Chicago during Lollapalooza. Episode One is also available to watch here, as Hammack discusses the early beginnings of her music career and moving to Nashville. The final installment of the special series, Episode Three, will be available to watch next Tuesday, Nov 5 as Hammack reflects on the path that has led to her current breakout single “Family Tree” nearing the Top 30 at Country radio.
Background on Caylee Hammack:
Caylee Hammack constantly felt like a self-described “hippie in a hillbilly town” in her tiny hometown of Ellaville, Georgia. “I used to pray every night as a kid, ‘God, just please make me different. Don’t make me like everyone else,’” she remembers. Hammack is indeed refreshingly different. And at only 25, she has already packed a full life into just a few years, using fake IDs to get gigs around South Georgia, turning down a college scholarship for a love that burned out just a few months later, sleeping in her car when she arrived in Nashville and then losing her home in an electrical fire. “My dad has always said that the most beautiful and strongest things are forged in the fire,” she says. “Iron is nothing until you work it in a fire. Glass cannot be blown without intense heat. You can’t make anything beautiful or strong without a little heat.”
Tested by the fire, Caylee Hammack has been molded into an artist with incredible depth and a powerhouse voice that can effortlessly veer from fiery and demanding to quiet and vulnerable. Her life experience and relentless curiosity have coalesced into a country cocktail that’s rooted in tradition but expands with shards of modern pop and rock. Her self-penned songs tug on her own life story – bad decisions, secret affairs, broken hearts, a quirky family lineage – as she invariably turns the lemons of her daring life into sonic lemonade. Hammack’s current Top 40 breakout single “Family Tree,” co-written and co-produced by Hammack, is already known for its “soulful vocals and descriptive lyrics [that] shine” (Billboard) and has been praised by CMT as “the first of many signature songs to come from Hammack.” “Family Tree” was the most-added single at Country radio by a female artist in over three years. Hammack is currently gearing up to bring her firebrand live set to an upcoming opening slot for Eric Church following time on the road with Miranda Lambert, Dierks Bentley, Brothers Osborne and some of Country music’s biggest festivals including Tortuga, Country LakeShake, Faster Horses and Seven Peaks. Hammack has also been the noted as an “Artist To Watch” by outlets such as The Bobby Bones Show, Rolling Stone and HITS Magazine for her “voice to move mountains” alongside her “clever story telling that keeps it all in motion” (Rolling Stone). For additional information, visit cayleehammack.com.