When Kait Berreckman released her first full band album (Conservation) in 2011, it was in the musical capital of Austin, Texas. And her songwriting pluckiness, soulful pop voice and arrangement abilities might have all-too-easily been compared to people like Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michaelson, Missy Higgins and the singer-songwriter like.

But if you dive into the songs, Berreckman trends toward a more imaginative kind of songwriting, time-and-place balladeering more reminiscent of ‘70s songwriters. The kind of people you imagine peering out their car windows, around the office at their day job and around their own kitchen, striving to figure out what the everyday means and how it might make the fittest pop song. These are Taupin-esque lyrics, but with a lingering taste of country that invokes Berreckman’s small-town Nebraska roots.

She’s a Cozad, Nebraska native, and while you may have seen Berreckman playing around Omaha during the last year, her journey didn’t start in the apt Benson ranks of so many pop and soul acoustic musicians. Omaha is just the current destination of a circuitous musical journey that’s led Berreckman around the country. After a musical hiatus, Berreckman reappeared this year with new acoustic songs like “Night Owl” and “General Electric.” They’re songs that once again feel lyrically organic, but with Berreckman maybe even more in the pocket as a vocalist and instrumentalist. And you’d imagine that would only pay dividends as she’s recently assembled an Omaha band with goals to record.

You can see Berreckman on Sunday, Dec. 21 at Slowdown and then at Barley Street Tavern on Thursday and again on Jan. 16. But right now she joins us live on HNFM. Here is Kait Berreckman.