Sara Evans is an established singer and songwriter who has been prominent in the country music scene for two decades, but her first song may surprise you.
At just ten years old, Evans recorded the song ‘I’m Gonna Be the Only Female Fiddle Player in Charlie Daniels’ Band’. She sold copies of the track in the hopes that she could attract enough attention to be offered a record deal.
Read more about Sara Evans’ life and career below.
Childhood and First Song
Hailing from Missouri, Sara Evans spoke about her childhood to Forbes. Her entry into the music industry certainly began early in life, with her parents spotting her singing abilities.
“My parents discovered my brothers and I had musical talent so when I was four years old my parents started a band with me and my brothers. Every weekend of my childhood was spent in a bar singing to two-steppers,” she revealed.
This experience appears to have prepared her well for her future career. “I’ve always had to figure out what songs people want to hear.”
At eight years old, Evans was involved in a car accident. She was seriously injured and required multiple surgeries.
Around two years on, she created her first song, called ‘I’m Gonna Be the Only Female Fiddle Player in Charlie Daniels’ Band’. The track was a clear nod to country singer Charlie Daniels.
The young star took her record to Fan Fair, now known as the CMA Festival, in efforts to sell the single. “We came up to Fan Fair to sell those records and try to get me a record deal. Clearly it wasn’t meant to be at 10 years old,” she says.
Career
The musical passions that Evans enjoyed as a child did not wane as she grew up.
In 1997, she released ‘Three Chords and the Truth’, her debut album, which introduced her country sound.
Her breakout hit came with the release of ‘No Place That Far’. The ballad reached the number one spot on Billboard’s Hot Country chart.
The song was co-written by Evans, Tony Martin, and Tom Shapiro, and includes the romantic lyrics “I can’t imagine any greater fear than waking up without you here.”
In the two decades that followed, Evans’ success only continued. She has had an impressive 30 songs appear on the Billboard Hot Country chart, with 9 of those featuring in the top 10, and 5 hitting the top spot.
Private Life
Away from music, Sara Evans married Craig Schelske in 1993, though this ended in a very public divorce in 2006. The two share three children, Avery, Olivia, and Audrey.
In 2008, Evans married Jay Barker, and the two now live in Alabama with Evans’s three children, as well as Barker’s four children from a previous relationship.
“I love my husband and I think he’s the best in the world,” she told AL.com in 2014.
The singer has found a way of merging her career with family life, telling Forbes, “I just love music so much and I love being on the road. There’s really no place I’d rather be than on the bus with my kids and my band and my crew, doing our thing.”
Her eldest son, Avery, has shown interest in following in his mother’s footsteps in the industry, an ambition that Evans has encouraged. “I want him to have every single dream he has ever had,” she says in an interview with Southern Living.
Besides her music career, Evans creates a blog alongside her sisters. Named ‘A Real Fine Place’, the lifestyle themed blog discusses travel, fashion, beauty, and more.
“My life can be pretty crazy in between recording music, touring, being a wife and mother, and somehow trying to sneak in a few hours of sleep now and then,” she writes on the blog.
Despite her success, Evans has not forgotten her farmyard roots. In her track ‘Missing Missouri’, she sings about her love of the state she comes from and the pangs of homesickness that she feels.