As a child, Jennifer Daniels would wander alone to a bluff near her Tennessee mountain home and, taking in the commanding view of her personal Southern landscape, begin to write.

It's a process that Ms. Daniels continues to this day.

Ms. Daniels is an innovative acoustic artist who combines elements of folk, rock, traditional mountain music and country into her deceptively simple songs. She said that although music and nearly constant touring earn her and her husband and musical partner Jeff Neal a living, she has never been tempted off that bluff, where personal trumps commercial every time.

"I don't want to write just for the sake of being popular," said Ms. Daniels, who will play Saturday at Le Chat Noir. "It isn't me. I mean, there's already plenty of that out there. But doing this is why I've been compelled to write since I was a kid."

Ms. Daniels said her songs usually begin as free-form pieces, tunes that she allows to twist and bend before she hones and polishes them into a completed project.

"When I write, I just cap that whole editing thing," she said with the buoyant laugh that punctuates her conversations. "I just let whatever will happen, happen. I also dialogue a lot, and the songs will often become a sort of a play. Only after that will I start to edit, keeping what is personally compelling."

Inspired by the land and literary traditions of the South, Ms. Daniels, who lives in Lookout Mountain, Tenn., said she found her own Southern pride when music offered her the opportunity to experience traditions outside her own.

"I was never so proud of being a Southerner until I saw some other places," she said. "Coming from that tradition, that tradition of literature and music, well, it's incredible."

Although known to bust out an occasional love-gone-wrong song or tear-jerk ballad, Ms. Daniels said her live shows are as much about the party that happens between tunes as the musical moments.

"There's still a side of my personality that would go to the bluff," she explained. "But there's also a part of me that loves to be with people. I love going to that party, and yes, I think that time between songs is important."

Recently Ms. Daniels wrote her first love song for her husband.

She said writing an unabashed love song about a real person and a real relationship can be difficult.

"It's easier to bring the darkness in," she said. "Far easier than writing a good, artful and positive song. It's harder to write a positive song and not have it turn out, well, cheesy."

Still, those are the songs she loves the most: the songs that feel good and, conversely, are about feeling good. It's the sort of song that, for now, encourages her to return to the bluff.

Reach Steven Uhles at (706) 823-3626 or steven.uhles@augustachronicle.com.