In 1998, Danni Leigh must have been thrilled to be a member of Decca Records’ impressive roster of young musical upstarts.
At that time, Decca was a division of MCA Records and was leaning hard into traditional country music acts housing artists like Gary Allan, Mark Chesnutt, Lee Ann Womack, and Shane Stockton. Unfortunately, Decca would unceremoniously be folded during the Universal Music Group corporate merger and restructuring. While MCA Records would continue as a label, Decca Records would not. Despite having just been signed, Danni Leigh would become just one more young and aspiring country music wanna’ be in Nashville without a home.
Leigh had to watch her debut album die on the vine. Released on October 20, 1998, 29 Nights was produced by Michael Knox and Mark Wright. Knox was the vice-president of creative services at Warner Chappell Publishing. Leigh had come to know Knox while waitressing at the Bluebird Cafe. With his help and encouragement, Leigh secured a publishing deal which lead to her co-writing “I Want to Feel That Way Again,” a hit single for Tracy Byrd. She parlayed that success into her own unknowingly doomed record deal with Decca.
Leigh’s debut single stalled at radio. “If the Jukebox Took Teardrops” peaked at 57 on the charts. It was a cover of a Mike Henderson and Mark Irwin song from 1994. As the title suggests, the song is unapologetically country in every imaginable aspect from sound to spirit. The second single completely stiffed. It was the title track and it didn’t chart at all with no push at radio given the label shenanigans. A finished video was never even released. Leigh’s recording career seemed to be over before it had even begun.
Nothing could have hurt her more than this disappointment. Leigh had to have felt like she had been chained to the railroad tracks. Somewhere along the way she had been hailed as female Dwight Yoakam. As complimentary and flattering as the connection sounds, it didn’t capture what made Leigh her own woman and artist. The comparison was too easy; it was based primarily upon the low slung cowboy hat hiding her face on the album cover and her tight jeans featured in the video for “If The Jukebox Took Teardrops.”
Vocally, Leigh has none of Yoakam’s nasal yelp. Let me prime the comment section by saying she may actually even embrace honky-tonk more fully than Yoakam. Her voice is husky, rich, and sinuous. It is a strong and seductive vehicle for the 11 songs on 29 Nights. Leigh co-wrote seven of the songs on the album. Her co-writers include Kenny Alphin (Big & Rich), Monte Warden (The Wagoneers), and Jeff Stevens.
I am a sucker for Western Swing and “Beatin’ My Head Against the Wall” ticks all the boxes. It is a playful and simple song done well,
“Weren’t You The One” is perhaps the most contemporary cut on the album. It rollicks along and includes some sassy harp to accompany the saucy lyrics.
“29 Nights” is a brooding and atmospheric companion piece to Gary Allan’s “Smoke Rings in the Dark.” It is a song about the pain of doubt and the fear of loneliness.
The songs she covers come from some pretty heavy hitters. Merle Haggard and Tommy Collins wrote “Mixed Up Mess of a Heart.” Harlan Howard and Kostas wrote “I Feel a Heartache.” Willie Nelson wrote “Touch Me.” She absolutely nails each performance.
The charm of the album is just how aggressively country it is. The fiddles saw. The drums punch. The guitars snarl and twang. The bass is upright. The steel guitar and dobro slide and soar.
In a Country Standard Time Review, Joel Bernstein said, “The 28-year-old Virginia native’s debut is such unrelentingly hard-core country music that, like a vintage Buck Owens album, it will be intolerable to fringe country fans. Anyone complaining that there isn’t enough real country music around had better buy this disc or forever hold their peace.”
Leigh would never find the country audience she sought, despite having Emory Gordy Jr. and Richard Bennett produce her next album, A Shot of Whiskey & a Prayer, in 2001. Interestingly. a cover of Stacy Dean Campbell’s “Honey I Do” was predicted to be her breakout single from that album. She would enter the orbit of the Dwight Yoakam association by working with long time Yoakam producer and guitarist Pete Anderson on her third album, Divide and Conquer.
The abandonment Leigh no doubt felt from the Nashville establishment must have been mitigated by finding greater success in Europe, Brazil, Korea, and Japan.
29 Nights remains a frenetic, fun, and shockingly hard-country debut that was made to move to while playing on the stereo. Leigh said, “For me it was the realization of a lifelong dream. Everyone at the Decca building believed in me so much. It was a great experience and 29 Nights was the album I wanted to make.”
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