DANI NASH plays the Horseshoe tonight (Thursday, September 5). See listing. Rating: NNN
Country singers are a dime a dozen, but few belt out their tunes from behind a drum kit. Enter Dani Nash, a local singer/songwriter whose petite size belies her powerful voice and gutsy stage presence.
She's honed her chops at a Dakota residency and while drumming for the Pining. Now, with a self-titled debut album, she's put her mark on tape - literally. The album was recorded the old-fashioned way at the Gas Station on the Island.
It's a fun record, and many songs fly by at a clip. (Since I Broke Your Heart is just a minute and a half long.) In alt-country style, Nash draws from old country and rockabilly, even including a cover of Brenda Lee's early hit Dynamite. Rip Right N' Ready's a ragtime piano hootenanny with gang vocals, and Jaron Freeman-Fox's violin shines on John Borra duet Fever Is Gone.
Things get more interesting at the end, with I'll Be The One, a moody, tougher-sounding song about drinking your sorrows away.
Top track: Since I Broke Your Heart
