Cathy Hamer

Cathy Hamer's story is one of those incredible tales that fuels creative catalog music labels and colorful reviews in collector's magazines. A Charlottesville, Virginia native born in 1958, Hamer was 11 when she taught herself a New Christy Minstrels song on a borrowed guitar at summer camp and became enchanted by expressing herself through music. Though she rarely performed, she wrote prolifically, drawing inspiration from Joni Mitchell and Carole King in writing folky, diaristic songs. (Another creative source: a summer spent on the island of St. Thomas, writing songs when n...