That few artists would like to champion their adolescent work–have their earliest poems, stories or drawings paraded in front of their peers and strangers–say, one decade on is hardly a revelation.

While there is often an exciting energy to such work - a promise of what is to come, it often lacks sophistication, refinement. So it’s something of a surprise that Georgia-based singer-songwriter Liz Durrett drew exactly from that era in her life for her debut CD, Husk, an album comprised of songs she wrote between 1993-96. The earliest material captures her while still a high school student, while the later finds her making her first steps toward independence during a tumultuous year of university studies in Athens, GA.

Despite the fact that the album was produced by Vic Chesnutt (her uncle and mentor) and despite the fact that it’s a surprisingly mature work (and would be even for someone twice Durrett’s years), Durrett says that she wasn’t initially sure about releasing a disc that featured songs recorded nearly a decade ago (and in some cases more).

“It was a hard decision. I labored over it a lot and I think that the record label labored over it, and Vic labored over it. We all went back and forth about what was the best decision. I’m not even sure that it was the best decision. When you talk about cringing, there is absolutely that element. I haven’t really listened to the record since it was mastered. It’s like looking at your bad teenage poetry that you wrote when you were in high school. It still stings a little bit. There is that. I did feel that there was something special about that record and the fact that Vic worked with me on it made it really special to me; the fact that these were the first songs that I ever wrote and the fact that Vic played on it and sang on it and produced it and did so much to make it what it is, I felt like it might not ever come out and that was one thing we considered – maybe first making a record of new material and putting Husk out later. But I think we just decided that we should do it first, or else it might not ever come out.”