When young musicians are starting out, they don’t always have the luxury of choosing their own shows and sometimes get put in a place where they don’t mix well with their surroundings.

For instance — a young folk-rock female playing on a Sunday afternoon at a brew pub during football season.

Mid-western folkster Brenda Weiler experienced just that.

“It was a brew company, which is not the place I should be playing,” a subtle Weiler explained. “It was an afternoon gig which made it even worse, football Sunday. They had a bloody mary competition going on at the same time I was playing. And one guy stood up and started cheering for a touchdown in the middle of a slow song.”

For Weiler, the road to stardom hasn’t always been that difficult.

As she is steadily gaining popularity throughout the Midwest, supporting her sophomore album, “Crazy Happy,” Weiler looks back on how she got to where she is today.

“Music has always been in my life. Growing up, my family was really musical,” she said. “The actual writing and playing guitar started right after I graduated high school in ’96.”

As a senior, she was the lead singer in a band and picked up the guitar through that experience.

Along with being obsessed with Tracy Chapman and Paul Simon, Weiler found herself listening to more alternative acts like Peter Gabriel, U2 and R.E.M..

Her taste hasn’t changed much since.

“I really like Radiohead and Patsy Cline right now,” she said.

Weiler has been compared to the likes of Jewel and Ani DiFranco and has found advantages and disadvantages to that as she tries to build her fan-base.

“It’s easier in the sense that people are much more willing to take me seriously being a woman and being young. As far as getting into different venues, they don’t brush you off as I think they would have a few years ago,” Weiler said. “But it’s also harder to be different and stand out from all those other people.”

One thing that sets Weiler apart from her peers in the music industry is that she has something to sing about.

“I mostly sing about personal experiences, relationships with friends, boyfriends, family members and people that I see,” Weiler said.

Her first album, “Trickle Down,” displays her singing with mostly nothing but a guitar, but she has shown signs of musical maturity as she continues to make music.

“‘Crazy Happy’ has about half band tunes. I actually wrote them more in mind of having a band behind me, which is a lot different than ‘Trickle Down,’ which is very stripped down with guitar and vocals throughout,” Weiler said.

Like many musicians, Weiler contains the qualities of a perfectionist and is still finding ways to improve herself.

“I want to continue experimenting with more instruments and not be afraid to try different things,” she said.

In order to keep fans interested in her show and still make a statement with her music, Weiler finds herself mixing intensity and humor into the energy she brings to the stage.

“I think live, it’s a mix,” Weiler said. “When I talk between songs I try to make it a lot more laid back and fun, and I’m always trying to crack jokes at all costs. When I’m actually in the song it’s a lot more intimate. I just kind of sink into it.”

Weiler has opened for big folk names in the past, including Richie Havens, but has her sights aimed even higher.

“My dream would be to open for someone incredibly huge, like Peter Gabriel or something crazy,” Weiler said.

But Weiler has been thrown into line-ups opening for bands that don’t fit her genre of music at all.

“I like to stay usually within,” Weiler said. “I’ve opened for punk bands, and it just doesn’t work. The crowd is there to see a headliner, and they don’t want to see a folk singer.”

Weiler hasn’t given her future a lot of thought. She just knows that she will be heading out to the West Coast this summer to do some touring.

“That’s a big step for me because I’ve never toured outside the Midwest, and I’m just really excited to see what kind of response I get,” Weiler said.

Her list of favorite places to play includes Des Moines, Mankato State and, of course, the University of Morris in Minnesota.

“I get the best crowds, and they’re so supportive,” Weiler said.

She hopes that Ames will give her a “Morris-quality” welcome for her first time playing here.

Weiler hits the Maintenance Shop Friday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $5, $4 for students.