Starting with a beautifully understated guitar lead-in from Brad, he sings the first verse in the persona of the crucified Jesus. Sara is in the role of his mother, Mary.

Brad’s opening verse is incredibly still and soft, reassuring his mother; the second verse is Sara’s and from the first line, she is full-voiced and clearly a woman in anguish. This duet captures the souls of the two characters — and their relationship — vividly and heartbreakingly.

It was included on an Easter compilation CD a couple of years back, as well as on the original CD referencing the movie. It’s one of the most successful performances, from both artists, I’ve ever heard, and the result is almost visual in its intensity. If you have not heard it, you owe it to yourself to seek it out.

Though I do have a special fondness for Sara’s traditional-leaning material, I don’t mind saying that I do enjoy her pop-country material also. In general, I think she’s succeeded at pop-country more often than she’s failed. I’m definitely with you on “Born to Fly” – That song just never gets old.

Born To Fly isn’t just my favorite Sara Evans song, I’d place it in my top ten favorite songs of all time. I can be in the foulest of moods and play this track and BOOM, instant happy.

I adore Sara Evans and much like JoDee Messina, I forget how much I love her until I hear her music playing. It’s a little embarrassing, but I love her poppier stuff quite a bit.

“Need To Be Next To You” & “I Could Not Ask For More”- both pop covers that I think benefit from her soulful, twangy tone as well as “Feels Just Like A Love Song”, which I assume was just a one-off single that really didn’t do anything rate among my favorite tracks by her. Her label does a great job picking her singles, because she rarely has one I don’t love.

Gator, I agree completely, a classic country covers album and a bluegrass album from Sara would be incredible. Sara also did a knockout version of the Lenoa Williams song “You Take Me for Granted” with Merle Haggard and his band back in ’97 I think. Unfortunately it has dissapeared from YouTube, but Sara really should record this and the songs you mentioned!

As your article and the subsequent comments demostrate, Sara really does have a solid body of work that shows her to be an artist of real depth and enduring merit, and this has made me a fan for life. I think her greatest hit singles are indeed great, but they are only the tip of the iceberg of her quality material. Some of my favorites are No Place that Far, Born to Fly and Three Chords and the Truth.

But I think she really shines as an album artist, a lot of her album cuts are even better than her hit singles. Songs such as I Dont Wanna See the Light, Unopened, Time Wont Tell and Love Dont be a Stranger are incredible. And her Early Years album is fantastic, especially Here Comes that Old Heartache, an original song by Sara which sounds really classic and old timey.

But best of all to my way of thinking are many of her contributions to various compilations and projects.:
-Mary of the Wild Moor..from the Songcatcher album
-Almost New from Girls Night Out
-New Again, (with Brad Paisley) from the Passion of the Christ companion album
-Are You Tired of Me Darling, a duet from Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Sweethearts album
-There is a City, which earned Sara and Bethany Olds a Dove award
-Brooklyn and Austin, from Sara’s Hallmark album Always There
-Never Alone, from a Jim Brickman album.
-Just A Closer Walk with Thee, from the Opry Gospel album
And as Leeann mentioned,
-The Distance between You and Me, from the “Will Sing for Food” tribute to Dwight Yoakam, and Sara’s cover of One’s On the Way is fantastic.

Taken together these “loose ends” songs could almost constitute an album unto itself, perhaps one of Sara’s best!