Born to Fly (CD - 2000)

Personnel includes: Sara Evans (vocals); Paul Worley (acoustic, electric & 12-string guitars, 6-string bass); Dan Dugmore (acoustic & steel guitars); Randy Scruggs (acoustic guitar, banjo); Biff Watson (acoustic guitar, bouzouki, mandolin); Marcus Hummon (acoustic guitar); Robbie Turner (steel guitars); Jerry Douglas (dobro); Aubrey Haynie (fiddle); Steve Nathan (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Hammond B-3 organ, synthesizer); Bruce Hornsby (Wurlitzer piano); Glenn Worf (bass); Matt Chamberlain (drums); Ricky Scaggs, Troy Johnson, Wes Hightower (background vocals).

Recorded at The Money Pit, Nashville, Tennessee.

Personnel: Sara Evans (vocals, background vocals); Paul Worley (acoustic guitar, acoustic 12-string guitar, electric guitar); Dan Dugmore (acoustic guitar, steel guitar); Randy Scruggs (acoustic guitar, banjo); Biff Watson (acoustic guitar, bouzouki, mandolin); Marcus Hummon (acoustic guitar); Jerry McPherson (electric guitar, mandolin); J.T. Corenflos (electric guitar); Robby Turner (steel guitar); Jerry Douglas (dobro); Jonathan Yudkin (mandolin, fiddle); Aubrey Haynie (fiddle); Steve Nathan (piano, Fender Rhodes piano); Bruce Hornsby (Wurlitzer organ); Ricky Skaggs, Troy Johnson , Wes Hightower (background vocals).

Audio Mixer: Clarke Schleicher.

Recording information: Loud Recording, Nashville, TN; Seventeen Grand Recording, Nashville, TN; SOund Kitchen, Franklin, TN; The Money Pit, Nashville, TN.

Photographer: Andrew Eccles.

After the commercial and critical success Sara Evans rightfully garnered for 1998's No Place That Far and the extensive tour she undertook to support it, Born to Fly emphasizes the more contemporary sounds on the recording, while placing some of the rootsy bluegrass back in the mix. She does this with the confidence and authority of a seasoned veteran who is in control of her work. Sitting in the producer's chair for the first time with Paul Worley, Evans co-wrote six of the set's 11 tracks. The studio players assembled on this date are impressive: Ricky Skaggs,Jerry Douglas, Randy Scruggs, Dan Dugmore, Bruce Hornsby, Biff Watson, Aubrey Haynie, Jonathan Yudkin, and Glenn Worf, to name a few. The standout cuts are the playful title track and first single, "Born to Fly," with its fiddles, Dobros, and mandolins; the nostalgic ballad "I Learned That from You," with its whinnying pedal steel; and covers of Edwin McCain's "I Could Not Ask for More" and the closer, a reading of Hornsby's gently choogling back-porch love song "Every Little Kiss." Evans moved to the top of the charts again with this one, and was able to go four deep for singles, solidifying her place at the beginning of the 21st century. ~ Thom Jurek

Sara Evans made her initial splash as a country traditionalist--with a cover of Buck Owens' "Tiger By the Tail" no less--but it's safe to say that nobody listening to this album is going to mistake it for the second coming of the Bakersfield Sound. Frankly, it's hard to imagine Owens crooning, as Evans does here, a Diane Warren power ballad. And several of the songs here are, deliberately, aimed at a broader pop audience; eliminate Evan's country twang and replace the Hammond organ with synths on "Let's Dance," for example, and you have a potential hit for Britney Spears.

That said, there's a lot of impressive music here, in particular the title song, which features jaw-droppingly virtuoso dobro work by the legendary Jerry Douglas; Evans's singing throughout is a marvel of expressiveness. Standout tracks include "I Keep Looking," one of the catchiest odes to spiritual unrest ever written, and "Every Little Kiss," a neo-Cajun Bruce Hornsby song with typically fluid piano flourishes by the composer himself. minimize