Caylee Hammack first came to my attention when she sang with Miranda Lambert and friends on a fun cover of ‘Fooled Around and Fell in Love’. She then was part of Ashley McBryde’s underrated Lindeville album, bringing a touch of glamour to the songs about small town life. With her red hair and fiery voice Caylee has set herself apart from the other mainstream country music singers and this new album ‘Bed of Roses’ showcases her talents beautifully.
Interesting that this album is being released at the same time as a romance novel of the same which she’s worked on with author Carolyn Brown. She’s also been promoting this album through book bloggers and lifestyle podcasts, attempting to broaden and diversify her audience beyond your standard country music fans, which seems a wise choice in this current climate.
Caylee’s brand of poppy, bright, confident, truth telling, hyper-feminine, slightly brassy country music seems unlikely to appeal to the MAGA/Morgan Wallen fans (thankfully) or indeed the genre purist traditionalists. The struggle to find a niche for herself might be the reason this album has taken a while to come together, with endless singles released over a long stretch of time since her debut album in 2020.
Title track ‘Bed of Roses’ is one of the more recent releases and seems a more confident statement of what she’s about musically. It sounds country, lets her voice shine, brings in a nice flower metaphor or two about moving onwards and letting yourself grow. Only those who were expecting a Bon Jovi cover would be disappointed in this one.
‘Breaking Dishes’ is in the Miranda Lambert tradition, with sass and anger in equal measure. Even with such a powerful, unique voice her quieter songs like ‘What My Angels Think of Me’ and ‘Back Again’ still have a softness about them which is endearing.
There’s a brilliant feminist riff on ‘Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys’ on ‘Mammas’, which feels particularly fresh considering just how many pro-cowboy songs there has been lately.
She’s not afraid to expose her own vulnerabilities like on ‘No I Ain’t’ where she’s trying to find resolve to let someone go (there’s an acoustic version of this up on YouTube which adds some nice harmonica). ‘Tumbleweed Men’ is the other song featured in that Vevo session and it has an equally heartbreaking tone, dealing with the fallout of bad decisions.
Caylee has a fun social media presence and I really enjoyed a few summers back when she was in Scotland, documenting her hiking adventures which seems to have inspired ‘The Hill’. The musical arrangement sounds like it comes right from a Highland glen, with some epic power ballad winds sweeping across the song for good measure.
She has worked with different songwriters across the album so it’s nice to see her getting a solo written song on the album with ‘Oh, Kara’. The quieter more acoustic nature of this one is in nice contrast with some of the glossier production which came before it.
Despite its slightly weaker second half, ‘Bed of Roses’ is overall an engaging and enjoyable listen. You hope a big voice and big personality like Caylee can continue to find an audience and have a long career in country music.
Highway Queens 
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