100 Greatest Women: 10th Anniversary Edition
#50
Sara Evans
2008 Edition: #54 (+4)
A pure country singer with a sweet tooth for pop hooks. Sara Evans was one of the few female artists able to maintain mainstream success during the male-dominated opening decade of the 21st century.
She sounded like something out of another era when she burst on the country music scene in 1997, only two years after moving back to Nashville after a stint in Oregon. While she had recorded some sides in the early nineties with E and S Records, she was pretty much starting all over again when she returned to Music City in 1995. But songwriting legend Harlan Howard heard her take on his classic tune “I’ve Got a Tiger By the Tail,” and was so impressed that he worked actively to get her noticed. Eventually, his efforts led to a deal with RCA Records.
When she released her debut album, Three Chords and the Truth, it was widely praised for its classic country sound. It was produced by Pete Anderson of Dwight Yoakam fame, and while it featured a handful of covers from the Nashville Sound era, the album was most notable for establishing Evans’ gifts as a songwriter. The haunting title cut was as pure a country song as anything released to radio that year, and Patsy Cline would’ve had a field day with Evans’ ditty “Shame About That.”
However, radio didn’t bite, so Evans was sent back in the studio to prep her sophomore set, No Place That Far. It featured a more contemporary sound, and while first single “Crying Game” barely dented the charts, the title cut was her breakthrough hit. It featured a soaring harmony from Vince Gill. The song went to No. 1 and pushed the album to gold status. Evans was nominated for the CMA Horizon Award in 1999 and 2000 on the strength of the hit and its follow-up, the lower-charting “Fool, I’m a Woman.”
Evans finally hit the big time with her third album, appropriately titled Born to Fly. The title cut was also the lead single, and it topped the singles chart in the fall of 2000. She followed up with her first bold pop move, a cover of the Edwin McCain hit “I Could Not Ask For More.” It went to No. 2 and helped push her album to double-platinum status. At the 2001 CMA awards, she was a five-time nominee, including nods for Female Vocalist and Album of the Year. She took home the trophy for Video, honored for her Wizard of Oz-themed “Born to Fly” clip.
When Evans returned in 2003, she attempted to further mine the big pop sound on her fourth album, Restless. However, first single “Backseat of a Greyhound Bus” stalled at No. 16, and while she recovered with the incessantly catchy “Perfect”, a No. 2 hit, album sales were still well below expectations.
The market had switched back to a more traditional sound, with female crossover artists suddenly out of fashion at country radio. But Evans had included a pure country rave-up at the end of her Restless set, almost as an afterthought. When “Suds in the Bucket” was released, sales for the album exploded. The song became her third No. 1 single and pushed her once-struggling album to platinum sales.
In 2005, Evans released her fifth album, Real Fine Place, and led off with “A Real Fine Place to Start,” a Radney Foster song that topped the charts for two weeks, and its follow-up “Cheatin’” also went top ten. The album hit a stumbling block when third single “Coalmine” faltered in the wake of mine disasters, but her consistency over the past few years was honored by the ACM when they named her Top Female Vocalist in 2006. A fourth single, “You’ll Always Be My Baby,” went top twenty later that year, and Real Fine Place became her third platinum album.
Meanwhile, Evans raised her visibility in an unorthodox way, becoming a highly popular contestant on Dancing With the Stars. She left the show for personal reasons, and dropped out of the spotlight for a few months to tend to them. But she came back with a batch of freshly written material to add to her first Greatest Hits record, released in October 2007. “As If” just missed the top ten, and was followed by the single “Some Things Never Change.”
Evans expanded to writing in 2010, co-writing a three book fiction series with Rachel Hauck. That same year, she released “A Little Bit Stronger,” which eventually became her fifth and final #1 single. Its parent album, Stronger, topped the country albums chart in 2011. Evans released two more albums for RCA Nashville, both in 2014. Slow Me Down became her final studio set for the label, released only months before her first full-length holiday collection, At Christmas.
In 2015, Evans announced she was parting ways with RCA after two decades, and one year later, announced her new recording contract with Sugar Hill Records. She stated at the time that the new contract would allow her full creative control of her music, which she’d never had before. However, a corporate restructure left her in limbo, and led to her launching her own independent label, Born to Fly Records. Words, her first project for the label, released in 2017.
Essential Singles
- No Place That Far (with Vince Gill), 1999
- Born to Fly, 2000
- I Could Not Ask For More, 2001
- Perfect, 2004
- Suds in the Bucket, 2004
- A Real Fine Place to Start, 2005
- A Little Bit Stronger, 2010
Essential Albums
- Three Chords and the Truth (1997)
- No Place That Far (1998)
- Born to Fly (2000)
- Restless (2003)
Industry Awards
- Academy of Country Music Awards
- Top Female Vocalist, 2006
- Country Music Association Awards
- Music Video of the Year
- Born to Fly, 2001
- Music Video of the Year
- Dove Awards
- Special Event Album
- Glory Revealed II: The Word of God In Worship, 2010
- Special Event Album
100 Greatest Women: 10th Anniversary Edition
Next: #49. Janie Fricke
Previous: #51. Carlene Carter
Sara Evans is very talented. She has a naturally likable voice. Her fans are a bit overbearing and I do feel like quality wise she has sort of slipped into mediocre in recent years.
In terms of impact though this is definitely a fair ranking.
Oh yes, I been waiting for Sara Evans to pop up. Sara is one of my all time favorite country artists. She has one of the best voices I had ever heard in country music and she always knew how to craft great singles. If you had to do a list of Sara Evans’ best songs, 95% of them will be singles. She always knew how to adapt with the times without sacrificing her talent and artistry. I never understood how people gave Sara flack for that. Sara is one of the few mainstream country artists that I’ve heard to find the balance between pure country and pop-country. I love Sara’s Three Chords And The Truth, No Place That Far, Born To Fly, Restless, and Real Fine Place albums. Restless is my personal favorite out of all of them. Restless is a diverse album full of different sounds and it have some of the best songs Sara has ever recorded outside her first two classic albums, Three Chords And The Truth and No Place That Far. Born To Fly is my all time favorite Sara Evans’ song. It the song that made her into a superstar.
I’ve loved her since day one, but I just wished that she would return to her country roots and stop all the musical pablum that she’s spit out on these last few albums. She is SOOO phenomenal when she does country…cause NO ONE does it better. I am still waiting for her to do a bluegrass album-then I can die a happy man!
A tremendous talent! She is excellent live. Great range of more traditional country and country-pop. Real Fine Place is her stand out moment for me.
A hidden gem was You Never Know.
If I was making a personal list she would have been higher too.
I agree, Troy. For instance, I love Terry, and I place her in my top 12 along with Trisha, Patty Loveless, Sara, Womack, Maines, Chely, Krauss, Connie Smith, Pam Tillis, k.d.lang, Ronstadt and the incomparable, Dolly Parton (in no particular order). IMO, placing Sara below Terry in ranking is unfounded. Vocally, Sara is a far superior songstress.
Gosh, on my last comment, I meant to spell “Terri” instead of “Terry.” Meant no disrespect to the wonderful talent she has. I know how to spell her name better than mine…it was a brain fart to say the least! TOP 12 TERRI FAN HERE…I PROMISE! (FACE PALM)
1 Paulette Carlson 2 Kitty Wells 3 Dolly Parton 4 Connie Smith 5 Jean Shepard 6 Loretta Lynn 7 Cathy Baillie 8 Emmy Lou Harris 9 Tammy Wynette and Wanda Jackson
@Keith Kimmey Sr.
And this is relevant to Sara Evans how? Or is it just more lopsided attention towards Mrs. Carlson?
As for my thoughts on Sara… I’ve only heard “No Place That Far” to date, so I can’t give any comments on much of her body of work – but I do love that song. Based on the things I’ve read about her, Sara should slip into my top 10 or 15 once I get more acquainted with her music.