“Do I keep living/Or do I keep giving/My heart and soul away?”

Listening to Courtney Santana belt out the refrain to the title track, “Living Through It All,” on her debut solo album for Jesse Dayton’s Hardcharger Records label through Blue Elan, you realize she just answered that question once and for all.

The lifelong backup singer became a fixture in her current hometown of Austin, Texas performing with Jesse Dayton as well as Kevin Russell’s local supergroup Shinyribs, after contributing her vocal talents to more than 30 albums while sharing the stage with the likes of Hootie and the Blowfish, Robert Randolph, Salt-N-Pepa and Musiq Soulchild.

That eclectic background has allowed her to develop a voice that fits snugly under the Americana umbrella, alternating between Aretha Franklin’s gospel heights (“Hardcore Believer”), Tina Turner’s defiant rock (“Living Through It All”), Whitney Houston’s multi-octave range (“Holding My Own”), the husky psychedelia of Grace Slick (“Fastest Way to a Broken Heart”) and the soaring “Gimme Shelter” peak of Stones back-up vocalist Merry Clayton (“Living Through It All”).