Sara Evans

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"No Place That Far" Sara Evans's 1997 debut, Three Chords and the Truth, seemed, on first hearing, impossible. Here was a major-label Nashville album that, once again, faithfully captured the heartbreaking simplicity of classic country; here was a singer who could belt out with raw nerve and then slip low into deep smokiness. Sara Evans in RCA follow-up is nearly as good, even as it leaves that hard country sound for a more radio-friendly, rocking edge. Billy Sherrill handles the recording, and though there's a luxurious quality to the layers of guitars and vocal harmonies, the standouts "Crying Game" and "Great Unknown" sound more like driving Americana rock than Top 40 country-pop. The real attraction, however, is Evans's fluid songwriting and expressive voice: whether she's singing beside George Jones, Vince Gill, or Alison Krauss, Evans's true, warm tone is, on the mainstream country scene, an emotional world apart. --Roy Kasten

Customer review from Amazon

Reviewer: Roger Lee from Jacksonville, FL USA The above sentence seems contradictory, so I will explain. I absolutely love Sara's first album, Three Chords and the Truth. I like it both because it is very well done and because it is very traditional country; a very rare combination in modern music. I was very disappointed in this album (at least the first half) the first time I heard it.Evans has obviously made her music more pop-ish to make it more appealing to a wider audience and to country radio. I like the second half of the album much better, which has a couple of great traditional songs (These Days and Cupid are out of this world!). After listening to the CD a couple of times the first half of it grew on me; it's not very traditional, but it is good music. I am sure that Sara is under pressure to record pop flavored, radio friendly music, but I hope she will at least keep recording some traditional songs too. There are dozens of singers who consistently produce good pop-country but so very few who produce great traditional country the way that Sara can.