Sara Evans

Singer, songwriter

Throughout her life, Sara Evans held one dream: to sing and compose country songs. Moreover, she wanted to succeed by returning to the traditional country songs brought to life by such legendary stars as Patsy Cline, Hank Snow, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, and Patty Loveless, musicians she described as her greatest influences. During the late 1990s, an era when many aspiring country musicians turned to contemporary, pop radio-friendly tunes, Evans made her initial mark by performing country songs that looked to the past, exemplified by her 1997 debut, True Lies. But despite critical acceptance and a nomination by the Academy of Country Music in 1998 for best new female vocalist, True Lies made little impact. Thus, for her follow-up release, 1999's No Place That Far, Evans bowed to producers, who persuaded the artist to update her repertoire, and she finally earned the popular recognition she had longed for since her childhood.

Sara Evans was born February 5, 1971, in Columbia, Missouri. She spent her early years, along with her six brothers and sisters, on a farm outside Franklin, Missouri, where her family raised corn, beans, tobacco, and livestock for a living. Although the family remained poor, Evans nevertheless enjoyed a happy upbringing, recalling fond memories of the stories her grandfather used to tell her about the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. The tales of the stars who graced the stage at the Grand Ole Opry struck a chord with the Evans children, and by the age of four, Evans, along with her two older brothers, had started traveling on weekends and during the summer as the Evans Family Band, performing gospel and bluegrass music at festivals and church revivals. Before long, word spread of the young girl's talent, leading the band to rename itself the Sara Evans Show. As the band's popularity grew, the Sara Evans Show eventually brought in about fifty dollars for each performance.

Went to Nashville

Evans had longed to see Nashville since first hearing of the Grand Ole Opry, and she made her first trip to the city at age eleven, accompanied by her father. She recorded a single, "What Does a Nice Girl Do in the Meantime," with the song "I'm Going to Be the Only Female Fiddle Player in Charlie Daniels' Band" on the record's flip side, but the recording went unnoticed. After graduating from high school and briefly attending college, Evans returned to Nashville with serious plans for breaking into country music. "I skipped college, and had no other aspirations but to sing," Evans told John Meroney of American Enterprise. "So I came here with my older brother, started waiting tables at the Holiday Inn on Briley Parkway, and tried to meet whomever I could."

The person who inspired Evans the most was Craig Schelske, a musician from Oregon, whom she would later marry. "He was a room service waiter trying to do the same thing," the singer revealed to Meroney. "We started dating, fell in love, and he asked me to go to Oregon with him and sing in his band." Evans accepted her companion's offer and spent the next three years performing with Schelske's band throughout the Pacific Northwest. Evans met some of the biggest names in country music, as the band opened for such renowned performers as Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw, and Clay Walker. Evans earned decent money as well, usually performing six nights a week. Nevertheless, she felt that returning to Nashville would provide her with a more certain chance at success.

Upon her return to Nashville, Evans soon realized that most artists had turned away from traditional country and toward a style that appealed to a wider, mainstream audience, a trend accelerated by country superstar "hat acts" such as Garth Brooks, Clint Black, and Alan Jackson in the early 1990s. Thus, traditional country, with its use of fiddles, mandolins, and acoustic rhythm instruments, was often replaced by a more neutral pop sound recorded with rock and roll production elements. Progressive country revealed more complexity as well, often abandoning the use of just three chords per song in favor of more adventurous guitar work. By the mid-1990s, country music—fueled by contemporary artists—had surpassed both pop and urban contemporary formats as the number one music choice of music, behind rock.

Traditional Debut

Although excited by such changes, Evans had always felt partial to the traditional style and sought out entertainment lawyer Brenner Van Meter. Impressed by Evans's gifted singing and songwriting ability, as well as by the singer's preference to perform traditional country, Van Meter arranged for Evans to meet her husband, John Van Meter, an executive at Sony Tree Publishing Company. Evans accepted a job at Sony recording songs for writers to submit to major artists as potential album tracks.

Eventually, Evans met well-known songwriter Harlan Howard, who wanted to sell his 1964 classic "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail." Believing that Evans's voice would help to promote the song, the Van Meters invited Howard to sit in during the recording session. According to Meroney, Howard said, "Are you that little girl in there singing? You're great. I've been looking for you for years to sing my music. I can't believe how country you are." With Howard's help and encouragement, Evans and her management felt confident enough to approach RCA Records about her own singing career. To Evans's amazement, RCA's chairman, Joe Galante, offered the singer a contract the same day of her audition.

Evans released her debut for RCA, Three Chords and the Truth, in the fall of 1997. Produced by Pete Anderson, her first full-length album included the Howard Owens single, in addition to the understated ballad "Unopened," the Patsy Cline-inspired "Imagine That," and her own co-written "The Week the River Raged." Although the album failed to bring in substantial revenues, critics were impressed. Chuck Eddy of Rolling Stone called Three Chords and the Truth "Nashville's most unjustly ignored debut." "Sara Evans is so good she's scary," wrote Paul Verna in Billboard magazine, who added, "At once a preserver of the best of country's history and a progressive writer and singer forging a timeless contemporary country sound, she invites favorable comparisons to the best country divas." The impressive debut also led the Academy of Country Music (ACM) to nominate Evans in 1998 as the year's best new female vocalist.

Progressive Follow-up

Despite sluggish sales, critical recognition helped Evans forge ahead, and in 1998 she released a follow-up album, No Place that Far. For the project, RCA hired Nashville-based producers Norro Wilson and Buddy Cannon. Her label also encouraged the singer to collaborate with Nashville songwriters such as Tom Shapiro, Tony Martin, Billy Yates, and Mantraca Berg. "It was a difficult process," Evans told Chet Flippo in Billboard, "but I feel we did it without being too contemporary."

For the Record …

Born February 5, 1971, in Columbia, MO; daughter of Pat Boggs and Jack Evans; stepdaughter of Melvin Boggs; married Craig Schelske (a musician; divorced 2006); children; Jack Avery, Olivia, Audrey Elizabeth.

Started performing with older brothers as the Evans Family Band (later renamed the Sara Evans Show) at age four; recorded first single, "What Does a Nice Girl Do in the Meantime?," in Nashville, TN, at age eleven; signed with RCA Records, 1996; released debut, Three Chords and the Truth, 1997; released follow-up effort, No Place that Far, RCA, 1998; released double-platinum selling Born to Fly, 2000; released platinum-selling Restless, 2004; released Real Fine Place, 2005.

Addresses: Record company—RCA Records, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036, fax: (212) 930-4468, phone: (212) 930-4000. Fan Club—Sara Evans Fan Club: P.O. Box 509, Knoxville, TN 37901.

The album's title track and second radio single, written by Evans along with Shapiro and Martin, and featuring the vocals of Vince Gill, travels through uplifting gospel territory as well as into darker rural harmonies reminiscent of the Carter Family. The song became Evans's first hit, climbing to the number one position on Billboard's Hot Country Singles and Tracks chart in March of 1999. Evans's favorite song, though, was one written by Howard and Beth Nielson Chapman, titled "Time Won't Tell." "Garth [Brooks] and Trisha [Year-wood] wanted it for their duet project, but Harlan gave it to us," she revealed to Flipp. "He's always been very big about helping new artists."

No Place that Far, with its stylistically varied songs, also fared well with critics. And country music fans approved of Evans's effort as well. The release rose to the top of the Billboard country album chart in early 1999. That same year, the musician earned additional honors when the Country Music Association (CMA) nominated her for two awards: video event of the year and the CMA's Horizon award, both for her work in 1998. After marrying Schelske, Evans made her home in Springfield, Tennessee. The couple had one son, Jack Avery, born August 21, 1999, followed by daughters Olivia in 2003 and Audrey Elizabeth in 2004.

Following the release of Born to Fly, Evans's stardom skyrocketed, bolstered by the success of the title song and its accompanying video, which was a clever homage to the 1939 film classic The Wizard of Oz. Restless, released in 2004, yielded another mega-smash single with "Suds in the Bucket," a song very much in the tradition of "Wide Open Spaces" by the Dixie Chicks and "She's in Love with the Boy" by Trisha Yearwood. The following year witnessed the release of Real Fine Place, another polished effort that combined contemporary sounds with traditional country instrumentation and themes.

In 2006 Evans's concert tours and singles from the album Real Fine Place helped her net a 2006 Top Female Vocalist award at the 41st Annual Academy of Country Music Awards. She was also introduced to a much wider audience of fans when she appeared as a contestant on the reality television series Dancing with the Stars. She resigned from the show, however, when her marriage dissolved. Despite her personal travails, Evans continues to be one of country music's most cherished singers and performers.

Selected discography

Three Chords and the Truth, RCA, 1997.
No Place that Far, RCA, 1998.
Born to Fly, RCA, 2000.
Restless, RCA, 2004.
Real Fine Place, RCA, 2005.

Sources

Periodicals

American Enterprise, March/April 1998, pp. 52-57.

Billboard, October 11, 1997, p. 83; September 26, 1998, p. 32; March 6, 1999, p. 114.

Country Music,, June/July 1999, p. 44.

Rolling Stone, December 1, 1998, p. 128.

Online

"Country Singer Sara Evans Gives Birth," CDNOW, http://www.cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/redirect/leaf=allstararticle/fid=16030 (October 24, 1999).

Today: theEnews, http://www.theenews.com/bms/tdnslug82499_saraevans.html (October 24, 1999).