Tristan Prettyman spent most of her 20s performing and touring around the world. After six years she felt like she was on autopilot and decided to take a year off for her own travels. One year quickly turned into four. She visited Australia and Europe and elsewhere. She also got engaged to her long-time boyfriend, but four months later, he broke it off. That’s when inspiration hit her.“I was so inspired [to write again]. I was fighting playing guitar and playing music. But in the end it was the only thing there for me,” said Prettyman in a phone interview on Monday. “I gravitated towards it.”From that experience, Prettyman’s acoustic pop album “Cedar + Gold,” released in October, was born. Prettyman will be preforming a mix of songs from that album and her two older records, and some covers, at her concert at Mr. Smalls in Millvale at 8 p.m on April 7. Alternative rock band Satellite is opening for Prettyman.Prettyman said most of the songs on “Cedar + Gold” were written in the moment and from her experiences.“This record is all about finding yourself and getting back on your feet after a really crappy time,” the 30-year-old said. “It’s good for the soul.”After years of feeling uninspired and burnt out, Prettyman found herself and put everything she had into creating honest music. She sings about the heartbreak of ending the engagement on “I Was Gonna Marry You,” and then finding freedom in letting go on “Say Anything” as her smooth alto voice sings “And we won’t break if we let go…We were bound to be set free eventually.”Prettyman said her biggest musical influence is folk singer Ani Difranco. Her brother had her listen to Difranco and Prettyman said she had never heard anything like her before.“[Her music] is so raw, it blew my mind. She inspired the honesty in my music,” Prettyman said. “…Most music is autobiographical, about the experiences and insight; the stuff I’ve personally gone through and others have experienced.”Beyond that, Prettyman listens to everything, including Macklemore, Jay-Z, Wilco, metal music, and “cheesy, bad country.” However, her own sound seems to be on the other end of the spectrum. Prettyman considers her sound to be singer/songwriter or acoustic pop, reminiscent of Sheryl Crow or Sarah McLaughlin. The music is more pop, but with a bit of country twang, said the San Diego native.Her style is different from the opening act, Nashville alternative rock band Satellite, which sounds like Kings of Leon, Snow Patrol or Bruce Springsteen.“They asked us to keep it more acoustic, and play a slightly less loud version of our songs to keep it more intimate like Tristan,” Satellite lead vocalist and guitarist Steven McMorran said with a laugh in a phone interview on Friday.Though their sounds differ, both Prettyman and Satellite share a gut-wrenching honest quality in their lyrics through personal experiences. As the main songwriter for the quintet, McMorran is very passionate about songwriting.“I think the point of a song is the lyrics, what you’re saying. Songs can say things in a unique way and melody is sort of like the punctuation,” said McMorran. “It allows me to say things I wouldn’t necessarily say. I’ve been through a lot of stuff, things that were disappointing…Life happens and I don’t know what to say otherwise.”The band released their debut album, “Calling Birds,” on March 5, which features a slower more acoustic song McMorran wrote after his friend told him he was getting a divorce. McMorran had no idea what to say to his friend, so instead he wrote “Ring the Bells” with these lyrics: “Sometimes the best in all of us/ Can still break down and still give up on love/ But it’s never gone.”“Music helps you communicate in a way you don’t necessarily know how,” McMorran said.Musically, Satellite – made up of McMorran, Mitch Allan on guitar, Josh Dunahoo on lead guitar, Erik Kertes on bass, and Kiel Feher on drums – is inspired by artists such as Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash in the way they perform with their “don’t care if you like them or not” attitude, as well as Radiohead and Bruce Springsteen.