Dani is the stage name of Danielle Marie Rudolph Burleigh and she is a native Westbanker—Harvey and Marrero to be exact. On this, her debut CD, her singing style is country all the way with ten relatively short songs ranging between two and a half and three and a half minutes and backed by a five-piece band. Her vocals are strong and steady, for the most part, displaying good range and control. On several of the cuts, Dani shows a great ability to hold notes for extended periods of time, a gift not often found in the C&W genre which tends to lean more heavily on pronunciation than technique. Her voice reminds me somewhat of Mandy Barnett, whom I had the pleasure of hearing at the Ryman Auditorium during my only visit to Nashville several years ago. All of the songs are originals, according to the liner notes, and all are written by the duos of either Bob Dellaposta and Teresa Wade or Jamey Whiting and Mieke Appel. The lyrics are typically country, focusing on love, heartbreak and struggle but always tinged with hope. There is some superb electric/acoustic/pedal steel guitar work from Dwight Breland on several of the tracks, while the other backup musicians, Jerry Plaisance on keyboards, Lawrence Barrios on bass, Gram Rea on mandolin and fiddle, and Jim Breland on drums weigh in with their talents, as well. All in all, Dani is probably as good as any of her peers who are fortunate enough to have inked a C&W recording contract. One or two good breaks and she might just be offered one, too.