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Starter Kit: Sara Evans

November 7, 2010 Kevin John Coyne 18

Sara Evans was one of the most successful female artists from the earlier part of the last decade, which was not a particularly good era for women as a whole. Her ease with both pop-flavored and purely traditional country allowed her to adapt to quickly changing trends in the genre.

This makes her catalog a fascinating one to sample. In compiling this Starter Kit, it would be easy to just list the hits. But I’ve left off some of her more overexposed tracks in favor of some gems that either didn’t quite dominate the charts or wasn’t sent to radio at all. I think her crossover numbers haven’t aged that well, anyway.

Be sure to let me know what I missed in the comment threads!

“Shame About That” from the 1997 album Three Chords and the Truth

The title track got all of the love, and the most airplay of the three low-charting singles from Evans’ debut album. But I think that this is the coolest little record, with Evans sounding like the female heir to Buck Owens as she can’t even feign sympathy for the ex who is now regretting his departure.

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Catching Up

November 6, 2010 Kevin John Coyne 6

Daylight Savings Time means one more hour to kill surfing the internet. It’s as good a time as any to catch up on the CMA Awards, your favorite artists, and reviews you might have missed!

Just follow the links below to our archival pages, all of which have just been completely updated:

CMA Awards

Read about every nominee and winner in all major categories since the awards began in 1967, starting with a rundown of this year’s nominees in each category.

Artist Pages

Read all features and reviews from every artist that has ever been written about on Country Universe, along with a listing of all of their industry awards and RIAA-certified albums and singles.

Reviews

Our archives include every single, album, concert, music video, and DVD review we’ve ever published, listed alphabetically by artist.

Just want to see what we’ve written lately? Look back in reverse chronological order:

More new posts are on the way, including our annual rundown of Picks & Predictions for the CMA Awards and the return of Starter Kits, Favorite Songs by Favorite Artists, and Yesterday’s Songs. Stay tuned!

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Sleepless Nights

November 3, 2010 Kevin John Coyne 22

I usually sleep pretty well. In bed by 9, up by 5. But last night, it didn’t work so well. I was up by 2:30 instead!

This episode, coupled with recently watching a very long and very entertaining documentary called Elm Street Legacy has me thinking about sleepless nights. Besides the obvious classic that this post title references, what do you think are the best songs about not being able to sleep?

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