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. At a crossroads of whether to pursue music or a more stable career, she contented herself with recording two private press albums in her home state in 1979 and 1980, and pursued work in music therapy. Hamer's daughter Kate Bollinger began writing and recording her own music, and her own career took off after one of her independently released songs was sampled in the title track of Kanye West's Donda. Bollinger shone a light on her mother's work, and in 2025, Numero Group began releasing selections from her archive of songs, culminating in 2026's Lady Full of Dreams.