Family Tree

Album: If It Wasn’t For You (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • Co-written by Caylee Hammack with Gordie Sampson and Troy Verges, this rollicking autobiographical song finds the South Georgia native introducing herself by describing her small-town upbringing and the family who shaped her.

    Sister smoked all the camels in the county last week
    She cleaned out the 7-Eleven, sneaking in, smelling like nicotine
    Mama's burning chicken for the tupperware party tonight
    And daddy's asleep in his chair the TV's blaring the stats for halftime


    Hammack kicks off the quirky tune by describing her home life, which includes a sister, Molly, who hides her smoking habit from Caylee. She explained to Billboard that a few days after she'd discovered Molly smoking, they went to the gas station together and found they were out of Camel Crushes. Caylee said to her sister, "Dang Molly, you must've smoked them out in this county."

    Hammack liked that line, and when went into a writing session with Gordie Sampson and Troy Verges a few weeks later she had it noted down. After sharing it with the other two songwriters, they said, "Wait, that's kind of cool. Tell us about your family." So Hammack started talking about some of the quirks in her family.
  • "Family Tree" was the first song that Hasmmack started working on for her debut record. It's the first song that she'd ever produced myself, and she and her co-producer, Mikey Reeves, spent around 55 hours working on the tune.
  • Not only does Hammack sing about the people she loves the most in "Family Tree," but she purposely made the song with some of her best friends, including co-producer Mikey Reeves. "We only had our friends play on it," she told The Boot. "We only had people we loved play on it."

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