Early into a conversation with Jen Moody, it’s easy to forget you’re talking to an up-and-coming musician who’s already met with considerable success.

Unprepossessing, enthusiastic, and down-to-earth, the Birmingham-based singer exudes a charm reminiscent of the girl next door or down the street, which for some local residents, she was.

The Texas native, who moved here shortly before starting high school, still has fond memories of writing her first song in her family’s kitchen in Springville after teaching herself to play guitar.

“My parents were real sweet,” she said, sipping a beverage and reminiscing on the sofa in the upstairs alcove of a Five Points coffeehouse.  “They acted like it was great.  It was a gospel tune, and I’d picked up the chords from a booklet I got at church camp.”

It may have been an inauspicious start, but it eventually led to her performing in Springville restaurants on Friday nights and local festivals.  Several years later, she’s playing larger festivals, rubbing shoulders with established stars and opening for such performers as Lonestar, Ty Herndon, Julie Roberts, and The Bellamy Brothers, and working in Nashville to finish her debut CD.

“I can’t wait for people to hear what we’ve been working on,” she said, also describing her musical style, explaining how she gets ideas from songs, and identifying the country star she’d most like to meet.

Her music:  “It’s country music.  Progressive country.  Gotta have love songs, gotta have breakup songs, and we’ve definitely got that twang to us.  It’s Miranda Lambert-type stuff, but you’ll also hear Garth Brooks, The Judds, The Eagles, and Bonnie Raitt in our sound.”

Turning ideas into songs:  “It can happen when you sit down to fiddle around or it can happen when you haven’t planned for it, like in the car on long trips.  When you start paying attention, anything can become a song.  Once it comes, it comes pretty quick.  Relationships – good ones, bad ones – will do it.  Friends and family can be huge inspirations.  Stories other people tell about things they’ve gone through can get your wheels turning.”

Her favorite song:  “It’s always the last one I wrote.  Right now, that’s ‘8 Seconds.’  It got its start with a trip to Fort Payne when I was in high school.  All my songs are about my life, and I usually end up writing them at one o’clock in the morning in my kitchen.  It’s like singing in the shower.  The songs sound better in there.”

On writing, recording, and performing:  “Performing is a rush.  It’s the funnest thing in the world.  Writing is more introspective.  Recording is fun.  The creativity in the studio blows my mind.  I’m in awe of some of (musicians) and what they can do.”

Her band:  It includes bass player Brandon Peoples, drummer Nick Recio, guitarist John David Acker, and Steven McCollough on keyboards.  “They’re really great guys,” Moody said.

How she describes herself:  “Obnoxiously loud sometimes.  Outgoing, but kinda shy too.  Straightforward, sometimes to a fault.  I hope I would be described as kind.”

If she could have a conversation with anyone:  “It would be Reba (McEntire).  I think she’s a genius.  I’d like to pick her brain.  Plus she has red hair, which is super-cool.”  She names “Fancy” as her favorite song by the artist.

If she were stranded on a desert island with one book, meal, and CD:  “The Bible, different kinds of pizza in case I had to be on the island for while, and Deana Carter’s first album, ‘Did I Shave My Legs For This?’  She’s my hero, too.  She’d be another one I’d like to talk to.”

The best advice she ever received:  “Always be yourself and have fun with everything.”

If she could change one thing about the world:  “Can’t we all just get along?”

Two things she’s never without:  “My phone and a Diet Coke with extra ice.”