Sara Evans

She’s had five #1 singles, sold millions of records, won the Academy of Country Music’s Top Female Vocalist Award and claimed a Country Music Association trophy for her signature song, “Born To Fly.” It’s tough to imagine many accomplishments Sara Evans hasn’t already checked off her bucket list. And yet, the release of her eighth studio album, Words, demonstrates that she’s still willing to leap into the unknown. Words is the first project on Evans’ own label: Born To Fly Records, appropriately named after that CMA award-winning signature song, which celebrated risk and adventure. The album was an eye-opening experience for Evans as a creative force. “The only thing I had on my mind with this album is just Grammy-level songs and the coolest music that I can find,” she says. “I didn’t really go about it in any other way. I wasn’t catering to any part of the business.” Her resume continues to grow and now includes 14 Top 20 country hits, ranging from her reassuring first #1 –“No Place That Far,” featuring background vocals by Vince Gill – to the neo-traditional “Suds In The Bucket” to the elegant, spiky pop feel of “Slow Me Down.” Sara Evans is one of country’s iconic modern singers, her music has worked so well on country radio, at concert halls and amphitheaters, and in fans’ personal playlists. And the music she’s made to date is authentically her. For a woman who always tackled the music her own way, the new album is 100% her own. It’s a big reason that the album is titled Words. The songs generate a number of words –flexible, commanding, sassy, daring, loving, hopeful, resilient – that all embody parts of Evans’ inimitable persona. Doing it her way. As a mom. As a record company entrepreneur. And, mostly, as a distinct artist still excited about her unique journey.