Singer-songwriter Sera Cahoone is in a different place from where she started

At age 41, Sera Cahoone says she’s now more secure in herself than ever. This confidence runs throughout the Seattle-based Americana singer-songwriter’s new record, “From Where I Started,” which is set to be released at a sold-out show Saturday, April 1, at The Tractor Tavern.

But confidence is a funny thing. It can be false or it can be rooted in the accepted eccentricities of our own unique, creative selves. For Cahoone, it’s the latter. While she says she can still feel “all over the place,” she’s also less “in her head” than she used to be, both as a person and as a songwriter.

“I think I’m so much more secure in general in my life than before,” says Cahoone, who moved to Seattle in her mid-20s. “But also life is weird.”

Over her career, much has been written about Cahoone’s shyness as a child and adolescent. “I feel way better than I used to,” the singer says. “Ten years ago I was a lot different. It’s something that I really worked on to get over. I can still be really shy and quiet — but if I get in a position somewhere, and I don’t want to talk, I usually force myself to do it.”

“Started” is a beautiful, 11-track album rich with self-affirmations within a looming, large world seemingly poised to crumble all around us. The most charming song, however, is “Up To Me,” which lists wishes from the singer to her potential partner (like wanting to be a honey bee to make her lover fresh honey) while at the same time acknowledging that, in the end, it’s “not up to me.”

“I wrote that song in a cabin in Whidbey Island,” Cahoone says. “I wrote it in four hours. I was super happy at that time, it was just something that came out of me. I never write songs that quickly.”

The full-length is also filled with characters, experiences and stories — many of which Cahoone calls autobiographical. “A lot of this record is pretty true to me,” she admits. “A lot of it is very personal. I’ve gone through a lot in the last five years [since her last LP] — good things and bad things.”

Cahoone, whose first instrument was the drums (she’s played percussion in several other projects, including Carissa’s Wierd), says she started writing songs in high school after listening to country and blues records. As a musician, she subscribes to the “less is more” philosophy and, to this day, music remains a major stabilizing force. While the songs on “Started” are fortified with her signature melancholy, Cahoone says that without music, she’d likely be lost.

“I don’t know what I’d do without it,” sighs Cahoone. “I honestly don’t know.”