Real Fine Place, in fact, became a huge family affair. Matt added background vocals on four songs, sisters Lesley Evans Lyons and Ashley Evans Simpson appeared on five, father Jack Evans added harmonies to “You’ll Always Be My Baby,” and mother Patricia, contributed to the supporting chorus on “In These Four Walls.”
The heavy involvement of her relatives is appropriate for Evans, for whom family is not just a cultural buzzword, but a way of life. She was born the third of seven children and grew up in a Missouri farming community, where she sang in a family band by the age of five. In 1991, she moved to Nashville, where she met fellow musician Craig Schelske (also one of seven children), who became the centerpiece of her second family. They moved to Oregon in 1992, married in ‘93, and returned to Music City in 1995, where she was guided by songwriting legend Harlan Howard toward receptive ears at RCA.
Her first album, Three Chords And The Truth, produced by Dwight Yoakam’s then-guitarist Pete Anderson, earned her critical acclaim and even the praises of Country Music Hall of Famer George Jones. But its retro-leaning sound didn’t quite catch the ears of mainstream country radio.
It did catch the ears of her contemporaries, though. As a result, her sophomore album, No Place That Far, featured guest appearances by Vince Gill, Martina McBride, George Jones, Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski and former O’Kanes member Jamie O’Hara. The title track also brought her first legitimate hit.
Her third album, Born To Fly, took some creative risks, but paid off handsomely, garnering four hit singles, her first double-platinum album and a bevy of awards nominations. It also demonstrated a bit of independent savvy. She insisted on hiring Seattle-based rock drummer Matt Chamberlain (The Wallflowers, Edie Brickell), who brought a slightly different sound to her music.
“I was always fascinated by drums—I’m still fascinated by drums and drummers,” she observes. “I think it’s the most amazing instrument, because I am all about feel and rhythm.”
Again, she knew what she was doing: Chamberlain has since been enlisted for major country albums by Keith Urban, Faith Hill and Carolyn Dawn Johnson.
Born To Fly was nominated for CMA Album of the Year in 2001, and her follow-up, Restless, received an ACM nomination in the spring of 2005, while Evans was working on Real Fine Place, which brought yet another non-Nashville musician to the core of her studio band. When Glenn Worf, the A-list bass player on the session, picked up a road gig with Mark Knopfler, she placed a call to David LaBruyere, who’d worked with Chamberlain on John Mayer’s most recent album. The result is a CD that stretches country’s conventions a bit, allowing Evans to further establish her own unique sound.
“It is so amazing when you bring in a pop drummer or a pop bass player, to hear what they will do on a country record,” she enthuses. “It’s phenomenal. They do not play the typical country stuff. They think differently. I mean, 4/4 time is 4/4 time. A waltz is a waltz. So you don’t have to be a Nashville drummer to be able to play country music, but it’s just so interesting to me to hear the spin they put on it.”
Evans certainly supplied them a variety of emotional textures in which to work. Real Fine Place contains dark story songs peopled with white-trash characters, highly sexualized love songs and affirmations of bedrock rural families.
“I felt like I wrote better this time than I’ve ever written before,” she observes. “I don’t know why that is—just confidence I guess, or pregnancy. I was pregnant again when I was writing this record, and my personality really changes when I’m pregnant. I’m more gutsy.”
The birth of Audrey Elizabeth Schelske in October 2004 expands her entourage. As Evans tours behind Real Fine Place, she now has three kids in tow (Avery was born in August 1999, Olivia arrived in January 2003) as she lives out those contrasts that are so much a part of Sara Evans’ existence: the homebody who chews up mileage on a tour bus, the devoted mom who’s also a glamorous award-winner.
“I separate things so easily in my mind,” she laughs. “I can literally, literally change a diaper or discipline Avery and then walk on stage. I’m such a multi-tasker you would not even believe. If I just had a few more arms, there’s no telling what I could do. I think that’s the trademark of a true woman.”
A woman who finds herself in a real fine place in her life and career.