Caylee Hammack on the True Story That Helped Inspire "Family Tree"

Caylee Hammack

If you're just getting acquainted with Caylee Hammack, then you'll definitely want to listen to her debut single "Family Tree" — the song introduces her through the stories of her own family.

"Family Tree" is inspired by Hammack's own family, growing up in a rural Georgia town, especially the very first line in the song: "Sister smoked all the Camels in the county last week/ She cleaned out the 7/11, sneaking in smelling like nicotine." The budding country star tells iHeartRadio of her first single:

"My sister starts sneaking out to smoke cigarettes at my mom and dad's place, and I'm a snarky little sister, so when we go to the gas station and the guy at the counter told her that they were sold out of Camel Crushes, I automatically jumped back with, 'Dang, Molly! You must've smoked all the Camels in the county last week!' And the writer in my brain was like, 'That's a kind of cool line.' And wrote it down, got back to Nashville, got into a writing room and just started talking about family. And all of a sudden, 'Family Tree' just happened. It's just the story of my family. It's all of our crazy little quirks that make us all us, and I just think that it's the perfect epitome of what my family is and how much they mean to me."

At the young age of 13 is when Caylee began to play music, but became "infatuated" with country music at just 11 — and it's all thanks to an infomercial for a compilation album featuring some of the genre's most iconic artists including Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, and more.

"I became infatuated with country music when I was 11 years old, and an [infomercial] came up that was playing all of the golden classics. And it was 10-20 second snippets of Loretta Lynn, then Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard. And I just, I needed it. I begged my parents to pay three payments of $24.95 or something, and I just, I obsessed over those records," she explains. "I played them again and again. And, I used to make the joke that Patsy Cline and Dolly took turns raising me. But I really owe all of my raising to them when it comes to the way I approach country music. I just tread in the footsteps of those powerful women that were telling their stories; Loretta Lynn, and Patsy, and Tammy, and Dolly just started me on this path."

There is a lot more on the way from Caylee Hammack, as she has also shared a new single called "Just Friends." She's also working on an album. Hammack tells us, "Country Music is telling stories. It is the stories of our lives. It's the loves we've loved and lost. It's everything that makes us us and I am just so excited that this is my very first record. These are all of my brand new songs coming out, and these songs really tell my story. They tell the growing pains of growing up, figuring out who you are in a world that wants to tell you who you should be, and trying to find love, losing love, and trying to find yourself after that and the aftermath. This is a collection of stories for my life because this is my way of connecting to others, is telling stories and listening to theirs. So, here's mine."

In the mean time, fans can catch Caylee out on the road as she tours with Miranda Lambert on the country star's all-female "Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars" Tour, alongside Elle King, Pistol Annies and more.

Caylee Hammack - 2019 Live In The Vineyard Goes Country

Photo: Getty Images


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