Sara Evans: True Blue Nashville Star

In a country music scene filled with artists who are afraid to embrace a pure traditional sound, Sara Evans particularly stands out as some who has stayed true to her country roots and have churned out albums and new country songs that are raditional and authentic.

Evans, a Missouri native, is one of the few traditionally-styled singers to have emerged from the Nashville Scene sometime in the 90s. Throughout her career, she has had four No. 1 Country hits and Gold and Platinum-certified albums including her “Three Chords and a Truth”  (1997); her subsequent release, “No Place That Far” (1998); “Born to Fly” (2000), which was certified Double-Platinum; “Restless” (2003) and “Real Fine Place” (2005).

It was in 1997 when Evans released her debut CD “Three Chords and the Truth,” which was highly praised by critics for its effort to bring back the traditional country sound, prompting many include it in their top albums of year list. By the following year, Evans released a more pop-country oriented album with hits such as “No Place That Far,” which was a duet with Vince Gill. When “Born to Fly” was released and became her first album to have been certified a Platinum hit by the RIAA, a total of four hit singles were released including the title track “Born to Fly,” which peaked at the No. 1 spot on the Country charts, “I Could Not Ask for More,” “Saints and Angels,” and “I Keep Looking.” The success of this album is capped off by the numerous nominations Evans received at the Country Music Association awards with a total of seven nominations, from which she proceeded to win the Video of the Year award for “Born to Fly,” her first CMA nod and her first major award from the country music scene.

The popularity of this album catapulted Evans to success, which was then followed by more albums and nominations that cemented her status as a true blue Nashville superstar. Following the success of this album, Evans released her fourth studio album called “Restless.”  Says Evans of the album, “Restless’ is sort of like taking the song ‘Born to Fly,’ and making the whole album based around that song.” She adds, “Once I wrote and recorded ‘Born to Fly,’ I truly discovered who I was as a singer, and as an artist, so I wrote a lot of songs on this new record with Marcus Hummon, who I wrote ‘Born to Fly’ with, and I’m just very proud of it, very excited about it.” Of the album’s sound, Evans says, “It’s very rootsy, some of the songs are artsy, some are just really wacky. I can’t wait for everybody to hear it.”

In 2005 Evans then released “Real Fine Place,” through the lead single “A Real Fine Place to Start” which again peaked at No. 1 on the Country charts in 2005 with her country music songs.

When asked about who she is as an artist, she says, “People always say you can tell the real deal, and I feel like there’s nothing fake about what I do. It’s just always been my life.”