sara evans early life

Sara Lynn Evans pronounced sɛərə born February 5, 1971, is an American country singer and songwriter.
Evans was one of the few traditional-styled singers to emerge from Nashville in the late 1990s, according to Allmusic. Since emerging from the late 1990s, Evans has made four No. 1 Country hits and Gold and Platinum-certified albums by the RIAA, like 2003's Restless and 2005's Real Fine Place. Her 2000 album, Born to Fly was certified Double-Platinum.
Contents
* 1 Biography
o 1.1 Early life and the rise to fame
o 1.2 Breakthrough: the Born to Fly and Restless albums
o 1.3 Success of the Real Fine Place album and Greatest Hits
o 1.4 Stronger and career today
* 2 Television work
* 3 Sara Evans' Band
* 4 Personal life
o 4.1 Divorce
* 5 Awards and nominations
* 6 Discography
* 7 References
* 8 External links
Biography
Early life and the rise to fame
Evans was born in Boonville, Missouri, in 1971, and is of Welsh, English and Irish descent. She was raised on a farm, and was the eldest girl of seven children. By five she was singing weekends in her family's band. At age eight, she was struck by an automobile in front of the family home, and her legs suffered multiple fractures. Recuperating for months in a wheelchair, she continued singing to help pay her medical bills. When she was 16, she began performing at a nightclub near Columbia, Missouri, a gig that lasted two years.
Evans moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1991 to be a country music artist, where she met fellow musician Craig Schelske. She then left Nashville with Schelske in 1992, when they moved to Oregon. After the couple married in 1993, Evans returned to Nashville in 1995, where Evans began recording demos. Nashville songwriter Harlan Howard was impressed by Evans' demo of his song "Tiger by the Tail". Howard decided to help Evans' music career, which led to a signed contract with the RCA Nashville
In 1997, Evans released her first album for RCA, Three Chords and the Truth. Critics praised the album for returning to traditional country and included it in many of their year's "top 10" lists. The video for "Three Chords and the Truth" directed by Susan Johnson director was nominated for awards from Billboard Magazine, CMT and the MVPA. The album included a cover version of an older Country song, Patsy Cline's "Imagine That", which originally reached No. 21 for Cline on the Country charts in 1962. None of the three singles made the top 40. It would be another year before Evans gained full popularity. In 1998 Evans released her second album, No Place That Far. Critics slammed her on choosing a more pop-country sound. Her first single, "Cryin' Game", hardly made a ripple on the charts though the music video, which re-teamed Evans with director Susan Johnson, did very well in rotation. However, it was her next single, "No Place That Far", a duet with Vince Gill, that brought Evans massive success, reaching No. 1 on the Country charts, as well reaching the Billboard Hot 100 Top 40, Evans' first major hit. Because of the success the album gained, Evans' album was certified "Gold" by the RIAA that year.
Breakthrough: the Born to Fly and Restless albums
In 2000, Evans worked on a third album to be released later that year. The album, Born to Fly, was released to stores on October 10, 2000, and later became another major-selling album. She insisted on hiring Seattle-based rock drummer Matt Chamberlain The Wallflowers, Edie Brickell who brought a different sound to her musicThe album became Evans' first album to receive a "Platinum" rating by the RIAA, and spawned four country hits, including the title track Born to Flywhich was the first single released from the album, reaching the No. 1 spot on the Country charts, Evans' first No. 1 as a solo artist. Hits continued from the album all the way into 2002. After "Born to Fly", the second single, "I Could Not Ask for More", was released in 2001, the country version of Edwin McCain's big pop–rock hit from the year before. Evans' version reached No. 2 on the country charts and was a No. 35 Pop hit, ironically an even bigger Pop hit than McCain's version on Billboard's Hot 100 McCain's version reached No. 37 In 2002, songs continued to be released from the album; "Saints and Angels" and "I Keep Looking" were the last two singles released from the album. "I Keep Looking" reached No. 5 and "Saints and Angels" reached No. 16. In 2004, the Born to Fly album was officially certified 2× Platinum by the RIAA.
In 2001, Evans was the most-nominated artist at the Country Music Association awards with seven nominations overall, and she won her first CMA award when "Born to Fly" won the award for Video of the Year, her first major award from Country music.
In 2003, Evans recorded a long-awaited fourth album, which was titled Restless. The album was released August 19, 2003 to stores. The first single released from the album in 2003, "Back Seat of a Greyhound Bus", was a Top 20 Country hit, reaching No. 16 on the Hot Country Songs list that year, but it did not hit the Billboard Hot 100, peaking outside it on the Bubbling Hot 100. Despite the album's first single not reaching the Top 10, the album still sold fairly well, debuting at No. 3 on the "Top Country Albums" list and the No. 20 on the "Billboard 200" list, and sold over 40,000 copies within its first week. However it was the album's next single, "Perfect" that broke Country's Top 10, eventually peaking in the top 5 at No. 2, barely missing Country's top spot. The third single from the album, "Suds in the Bucket", was the album's most successful single; it became Evans' third Number One hit and was also a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Additionally, it was Evans' first ever Gold-certified single by the RIAA. The album's fourth and final single, "Tonight", failed to reach the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.