Country singer-songwriter CAM joins Phil Vassar’s Songs From the Cellar for an informal chat about memories of writing together, music today and Cam’s upcoming tour.
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As always, interspersed within the show are performances by both Cam and Vassar. For this episode, Cam and Vassar sing “Want It All” together, Cam sings “Burning House” and Vassar sings “Save Tonight for Me.”
Being longtime friends, Vassar and Cam reminisce on the first song they co-wrote together, “Want It All” and how impressed Vassar was with her song “Burning House,” both featured on her 2015 album Untamed.
“When I heard that song (“Burning House”) the first time and it was a single I remember personally just thinking how different it sounded on the radio compared to truck songs and tailgates and beer songs and it was almost like everything just hit the brakes,” says Vassar.
Nowadays, Cam is focused on an upcoming tour, newlywed life and trying to stay sane through it all saying “everyday feels like a big runaround.”
She explains what she envisions and hopes for her 12-date tour, the first one she’s ever headlined.
“These are the real fans. The people that are on board that are gonna be there for my whole career, you know? So, I want to give them the best show possible. Make as many stories as possible.”
This principle also applies to her writing and trying to stray away from the inauthenticity that labels can sometimes bring to the album-making process. She says that she hopes to “make something that at the very core of it makes people feel something.” Adding later, “I think when music is really great it doesn’t need as much of a push anymore.”
She shares how that ideology plays into the fluidity of genres today and the openmindeness of the industry.
“It’s so interesting how you get to relate to fans right now. And the cool thing is that it feels like all genres are open minded in terms of like, when you’re listening, you’re like, if this is on my Spotify playlist, I go listen to it. I don’t care what genre it is.”
Younger generations aren’t so focused on what the song is categorized as, but whether it’s enjoyable to listen to or not, meaning the lines between genres are blurring and award shows are having a hard time keeping up.
She jokes that, “Those AMA awards, that’s an all-genre thing and to be nominated that’s like, ‘Wow, other people besides country, people know who I am?”
In this way, her humility shines through and so does her talent. For a look into what Cam is all about, check out her most recently released album, The Otherside.
