Born in Hernando, Miss., Garrison Starr was still in high school when she began performing original material in coffeehouses and clubs around Memphis, Tenn. She quickly developed a following. In 1993, she graduated from high school and released a nine-song cassette, titled Pinwheels, produced by her friend Clay Jones.

She attended three semesters at Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss., where she found herself surrounded by young people whose chief ambition in life seemed simply to fit it. She responded to the experience with a 1996 EP, Stupid Girl. She financed her recordings with the help of friend Mark Roberts and through gigs. She also held an administrative job at Ardent Records, the well-known Memphis label and studio.

During this time, she recorded her 1997 major label debut, Eighteen Over Me. Despite a boisterous first single ("Superhero") and broad critical acclaim, the album was an uncomfortable one for her. "I wasn't quite in my skin, the songs came from a dark time, loaded with growing pains about my music and me," she says.