‘Catch of the Day’ – Cam – “May Day” [AUDIO]

Today the focus falls on a singer and songwriter who's first success as a songwriter was with a song recorded by Miley Cyrus. She has begun to come into her own as a performer, recently landing her first number 1 single as both a songwriter and a performer.

Cameron Marvel Ochs was born in Lafayette, CA, a small northern California town situated between San Francisco and Sacramento. While she was young, she worked on her grandparents Oceanside farm, where she was exposed to Country artists like Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and Patsy Cline. Cam learned her lessons well, singing in choirs and vocal groups throughout high school and college, which included the Contra Costa Children's Choir, where she learned to sing in fourteen languages. After High School graduation, she was accepted to Cal State University in Davis, where she studied law and psychology, but also formed an a capella group and learned to play guitar

After graduation from Cal Davis, Cam traveled to the Netherlands, where she furthered her furthered her guitar playing. She then traveled to rural mountain community in Nepal, where she lived without electricity and basic needs. Her confidence in her playing was greatly increased by the trek, and began playing more regularly.

In 2010, Cam signed with Rubber Room Records and released her debut album under her full name, Cameron Ochs. The album, which featured songs based on her experiences in Nepal, met with great, local critical reviews. She soon left the Bay Area of California for Los Angeles, where she began concentrating on her writing. Attempts to get demos of her songs to Faith Hill saw them going to Tim McGraw instead, who recommended one of the songs "Fall Madly In Love With You" to singer Maggie Rose, who recorded it on her 2013 debut album. Another of Cam's tracks, "Maybe You're Right" finding its way into the hands of Miley Cyrus, who recorded it for her 2013 album Bangerz.

One other song of Cam's from the demo was recorded in 2013; she herself decided to record the single "Down This Road". When the track made its way to Doug Morris, Director of Sony Music Entertainment, Morris offered her an audition. Performing at the label's headquarters in New York with just an acoustic guitar, she played a song that she had been working on prior to the audition. When Morris began humming along to "Burning House" he new he had found something, asking Cam to perform the song at the Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony. She was soon signed to Arista Nashville, a division of Sony, in 2014.

Her first single for the label, "My Mistake" was released in March of 2015. The song failed to catch the attention of Country radio, peaking at #52 just a few weeks later. It was at that point she decided to drop her last name, feeling it was "too difficult to pronounce" and may have lead to the single failing. In June, she went on a radio tour to promote her second single. Shortly after its debut, "Burning House" became the fastest climbing single on iTunes, debuting in their top-20. Sony then decided to release the single, which turned out to be a pretty good call.

"Burning House" topped the Billboard Country chart in December and becoming the top selling country single from a female artist in 2015, and has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Solo Performance. At the same time the single topped the country chart, Arista released her major album debuted Untamed, which features 11 songs written by Cam. Today the spotlight falls on the third single from the album, "May Day", today's Catch of the Day, new music you haven't heard, but you'll want to hear it again.