On February 5, 1971, Sara Lynn Evans was born in Boonville, Missouri and lived her childhood on a farm with six other siblings. A group was created by her broad family, and she was made the lead singer. At the age of 8, she endured a disaster that contributed to her desire to become a singer. She was compelled to stay in a wheelchair and hum to pay up her hospital expenses by a traffic crash.
By 16, in Columbia, Missouri, Evans was a club dancer in a nightclub. When she was twenty, she relocated to Nashville, Tennessee with the expectation of being a bigger artist. When she encountered fellow artist Craig Schelske, whom she later married in 1993, she had the chance. Evans and Schelske were back in Nashville after spending a little time in Oregon and began recording demos. She was given a deal with RCA Nashville by one of them, dubbed “Tiger by the Tail”
She launched her debut album “Three Chords and the Truth” under the label and gained acclaim from Billboard, CMT and MVPA. But it wasn’t until her second “No Place That Far” record, published in 1998, that she achieved greater prominence. “A duet with Vince Gill was one of the tracks, “No Spot That Far,” which hit No. 1 on the country charts as well as entered the Billboard Hot 100 Top 40.
She was waiting for the recording of a third album that was actually released in 2000. Thanks to its title track and three other songs, “Born to Fly” enjoyed greater popularity than the previous ones. The album became the first album by Evans to earn the RIAA ranking of “Platinum” By 2004, “Born to Fly” was legally certified by the RIAA to be two times Platinum.
The accomplishment was awarded at the 2001 Country Music Association Awards with several nominations. When the coveted Video of the Year was captured by Born to Ride, she received her first CMA prize. Evans did not lose time launching another record, with “Restless” coming out two years later. On the country songs list, the first track “Back Seat of a Greyhound Bus” performed good, but it struggled to gain a spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song, however, sold reasonably well, making its debut on Hot 200 at number 20 with 40,000 copies on offer. Maybe it was the case of an erroneous first single option since her chart performance was experienced by her second and third. In the country list, “Perfect” and “Suds in the Bucket” reached the top 5, and the latter entered the top 40 of the Hot 100.
She dropped another album in 2005, her fifth one, and named it ‘Real Fine Spot.’ Again, a country smash “A Real Fine Place to Start” was spawned, which also broke into the Pop 100 and Hot Digital Songs of Billboard. As a consequence, by selling 130,000 units in the first week and placing at no. 3, the album performed well on the Hot 200.
She launched a compilation album named “Feels Like Home” to tide fans ahead to her sixth album, which featured her greatest hits such as “Born to Fly” and their remix. There was also a special Mother’s Day album published in 2006 named “Always There”. In addition to two new tracks, it included live and acoustic interpretations of ‘Born to Run’, ‘Suds in the Bucket’ and more.
Her achievements came to fruition when she was named at the 2006 ACM Awards as the recipient of Best Female Vocalist. In 2007, the accolade was accompanied by a compilation of Greatest Hits that also included four new tracks, including the smash “As If” She spent the next two years writing novels, hosting ACM, writing movie music, and helping Ron Paul, the Congressman of Texas. In 2009, in preparation to embark on a Christmas tour, she released an EP with Christmas songs.
Owing to her high-profile divorce from her 13-year-old ex, Craig Schelske, the bridge between the fifth and sixth album launches is six years out. In order to take control of her turbulent division, which was marred by adultery claims, Evans had to quit from “Dancing with the Stars” In 2008, a year after the divorce was completed, Evans married a former quarterback at the University of Alabama, Jay Barker. Their children were observing the wedding in Franklin, Tennessee.
Her sixth record is called “Stronger” and will be released on March 8, 2011. It is led by the single “A Little Bit Stronger” which was co-written by Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott.