Garrison Starr

Garrison Starr, a singer and songwriter, stands out as an independent spirit fueled by deep passion. Raised across the South, her songs fuse the distinctive twang of Nashville country with strong rock drive. While classmates mapped out conventional paths after graduation, Starr focused entirely on becoming a performer. She put out the self-produced cassette Pinwheels immediately upon finishing high school and sustained regular coffeehouse appearances before heading to the University of Mississippi in autumn 1993.

That academic period ended quickly when she withdrew after three semesters to concentrate on music full time. Her 1996 EP Stupid Girl looked back on those campus years. The next year brought her first major-label outing, Eighteen Over Me, which conveyed greater assurance and a clear shift in sound. Sultry textures met abrasive edges as she asserted herself both musically and personally. The momentum faded, however, once self-doubt and regret over her choices surfaced in her early twenties. Longtime friend and songwriter Clay Jones offered steady support during that stretch of uncertainty.

A relocation from Nashville to Los Angeles led Starr and Jones to begin writing together. She developed the songs at her own pace. Her second album, Songs from Take Off to Landing, arrived in spring 2002 carrying a post-alternative and country inflection. Vanguard introduced her to its roster in 2004 with Airstreams & Satellites. Within a year she chose to leave Los Angeles and settle again on the sunnier side of Nashville. For her fifth album she enlisted longtime guitarist collaborator Neilson Hubbard and bassist/engineer Brad Jones. Released in March 2006, The Sound of You and Me emerged as the most candid and emotionally direct record she had made, although she later singled out 2007’s The Girl That Killed September as her “best.”