According to the self-penned bio on her website, this sultry alt-rock/pop piano chanteuse claims such influences as Rachmaninoff and Chopin, although her album It’s Just a Number is rooted squarely in accessible modernity. With guitars, bass, drums and lush harmonies propelling her well-laid foundation of lyrics and piano into clean, sky-high rock ballads and anthems, there are also quieter moments, such as “Shaded,” in which Dasha’s classical roots do shine subtly through those expertly tickled ivories. It’s hard to believe that she initially hesitated to do the vocals herself, as her bio also purports, until an engineer recommended she go for it. With the help of a vocal coach and no shortage of courage, we listeners are treated to these stirring and consistent, occasionally acrid songs of love, loss, and all the perseverance in between, with high quality studio sound and no small order of this talented artist’s strong, unfaltering voice.

Favorite: Track 6 “Shaded”

Steve Gunn is a hard-boiled suburban New Yorker with a PhD in rockology and the propensity to point with full-throttle moxie up to his ears and unflinchingly declare, “Hey! These things ain’t garbage cans, y’know!” sisterray@myway.com