There’s a good reason why Kathleen O’Keefe’s first album, Hide Away, doesn’t really sound much like a “debut.” Let’s call it “seasoning.”

Maybe if she had tried making it 20 years ago, around the same age that many of her peers on the Texas music scene were all releasing their debuts, the resulting songs would have felt a little more innocent and a lot less careworn, frayed around the edges, and just well, lived in. But despite having played guitar since high school and even writing a fair amount of songs in college and throughout her younger adulthood, the Dallas-born-and-raised O’Keefe opted early on to initially chart a different course through her beloved Texas music industry.