Helen Hummel hails from the green mountains of Vermont. Surrounded by the rural landscape and her musical family, Helen learned to treasure music, visual art, and nature. She took piano lessons in grade school and moved on to guitar lessons in high school, singing alone and in choral groups throughout. During summer breaks from college, Helen exchanged farm work for formal vocal coaching and continued writing songs with earnest.
After College, Helen moved around New England, supporting her pursuit of music with various jobs. All the time she experimented with new musical styles, writing methods, and visual art techniques.
Helen moved across the country to Los Angeles in 2013. For just under three years, Helen earned her living working in a natural food store and spent the rest of her time bringing her Vermont tunes into a variety of LA venues: in The Viper Room on Sunset Strip and sunny farmers markets; in Hollywood coffee shops and dive bars; sometimes on the street in Santa Monica.
In 2016 Helen returned to New England in search of the right recording studio. For the next nine months she traveled between her home in Vermont and a recording studio in New Hampshire, where she exchanged farm work for recording time. This organic route to recording her first, full length album fell perfectly in line with the natural sounds and feelings of Many Waters. Helen ran a successful crowdfunding campaign to help cover the costs of mixing, mastering, manufacturing, and promotion of the album. She also designed and created the album artwork and promotional videos.
Helen relocated to Western Massachusetts in 2018, released "Flood Line," a new single and accompanying stop motion animation music video, and has been playing music in and around the valley ever since. She has opened for artists including Anais Mitchell, Abigail Lapell, The Wildwoods, Charlie Chronopolis, Pamela Means, Lexi Weege, and many more.