Garrison Starr collapses on the couch in her dressing room, only to be reminded that sound check is in five minutes and things are already running late. Around the corner, headliner Steve Earle and crew rumble through a cover of the Rolling Stones' “The Last Time,” eliciting a big grin from the genteel guitarist.

“What an honor it is to be able to go out and play with an artist like Steve every night,” says the Mississippi-born Starr. “He brings me out onstage with him during his set, and he plugs my name all throughout the show. That kind of support is invaluable.”

Things haven't always been quite so rosy for Starr. Ten years ago, fresh out of high school, she made her first recording, a nine-song cassette called Pinwheels. After a few semesters at the University of Mississippi she put down the books and hit the road, determined to make a dent in the music world. Her second self-financed album, the EP Stupid Girl, came out in 1996.

It looked as if Starr hit pay dirt in 1997 when Geffen Records issued 18 Over Me, a full-fledged collection of her original songs. Combining country-acoustic with tough, melodic pop (and featuring studio heavyweights such as producer Dennis Herring and mixer Jim Scott), 18 Over Me placed Starr within the same critical realm as trailblazers Melissa Etheridge and Aimee Mann. By the end of 1998, she seemed to be on the verge of a career breakout.

But before she could begin work on her next project, Starr was asked to submit acoustic demos of her new songs for approval before they could be considered as future album cuts. For Starr, it was an intolerable situation. “Granted, because of the pressure, the songs I was coming up with weren't that great,” she says. “The thing is, even if I'd brought them 20 of the most genius songs ever written, they still probably wouldn't know what to do with them. At the same time, I didn't have much of a vision of what kind of artist I really wanted to be.”

Starr and Geffen ended up parting ways, and it looked as if everything she'd achieved over the past five years had evaporated. She stepped away from music for a time and took stock. Fortunately, Starr had her youth working in her favor: at 24, she started all over again — this time, as an independent.

“It had to happen this way, because I wasn't able to figure out who I was or how to grow as an artist,” says Starr. “The difference is that as an independent, I was finally forced to make my own decisions. Don't get me wrong — I still want people around to help me with the business end of things. It's just that I needed to know that I could continue to make records without having to have someone's approval on everything.”

Issued on Back Porch Records in 2002, Songs from Takeoff to Landing shows that the layoff didn't affect Starr's skills as a songwriter. Onstage, stripped-down rockers such as “5 Minutes” and “Madness” lend themselves perfectly to Starr's lean power-trio format.

“I just came up with this Bad Cat 1×12 [combo amp]. The thing rocks,” boasts Starr, who covers all guitar parts using her '78 Tele Custom and Taylor W10 acoustic. Of course, having a mentor like Earle (who offers musical and technical assistance on Songs from Takeoff to Landing) has been a real boost for Starr.

“More than anything else, Steve reminds me of the way things are when you're younger,” says Starr, “when you had this passion about everything and you wanted to change the world every night. That's so important — because if you're not inspiring people, then what's the point? I don't mean you have to make political statements — it could just be the way you play, your melodies, your guitar tones. Because people really know when you've got nothing.”