Sara Evans
My home town is actually New Franklin, Missouri. I went to grade school and high school there. New Franklin high School has invited me to give the high school graduation commencement speech.
It’ll be my ten year anniversary. That will be this May. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll probably tell them,’ Look at me. I didn’t go to college and I still made it by’ (she laughs). I don’t necessarily like the fact that country music is so pop oriented today but, I can either stay in the game or go back to Missouri. I’ve made the choice to stay in the game. Now it’s absolutely wonderful. You know, with every sort of milestone like this (Sara is referring to the Top 20 success of her single), it’s another little break through that I get. I gain a little bit more control of my life and my career with every little bit of success I’ve earned and that’s a great feeling. I’m really looking forward to going out on tour and to doing these dates with Alan Jackson. Just knowing that when I step out on-stage on this tour, that people are going to know a song by Sara Evans (she laughs).
When I start singing that song, the people there are going to know it and they’re going to love it and that’s a great feeling.
Alan didn’t personally call me but my manager did get a call from his manager and he told him that,’ Alan would like for Sara to come out and do some shows. We have this new idea and we’re going to have all these new artist.’ So, a lot of the other artist on the bill are really, really new. With me, a lot of people knew about “Three Chords And the Truth” and a lot of people bought that and I have this new song out on radio now. So, it’s going to be a great opportunity for all of us. We’re all going to get to play our music in front of a huge audience that we normally wouldn’t get to play in front of. It’s also going to be neat, I’m doing four songs and then I’ll do a meet and greet, so it’s going to be a really fun time. I just love to perform no matter what. If it’s five people of fifty thousand people, I don’t really care, performing is where I feel most comfortable and the most happy. I love it that’s what I was born to do. You know, on pay day at Wal Mart, when the people go to the record department to buy something to listen to, there’s the new album by Sara Evans right there next to the album by Sheryl Crow.
As country artist, we’re totally competing with every single format of music these days.
That’s why country radio is so scared to play traditional country music, they know that we’re sort of blending country music with everything else. People don’t just go out and buy all country records anymore. I’m the same way. I may go out and I’ll buy the new album by Alison Kraus and I’ll buy the new album by Sheryl Crow along with the new album by Dave Matthews. Regardless of what radio did, I’m a person, an artist and a performer. No matter what radio did with my first record, I’m going to bounce back and eventually it’ll catch on. Even if I do have to compromise, I’ll compromise in a good way. When the first record didn’t do as well as we’d planned, I had some touch conversations with the record company and with Joe Galante and the toughest one of all was when they asked me to change producers. They really felt the production of the album was the main reason that radio wouldn’t play it, in that, I could still make a country record but we needed to make It sound a little more Nashville, a little, more like what radio wants. When I was going through that, I thought to myself,’ You know what? I can really be tough and I can chose to stay with Pete Anderson and choose to have the label possibly dropping me after a second record. Or, I can get in the game and play the game to the best of my ability.’
So, I started writing songs and we started talking about new producers for the second record.
What I realized at that time was this industry is no fun to be in unless you’re succeeding at radio.
I want to succeed at radio, I want to be a big country star. That’s always been my dream. I just had to come to the realization that country music is never going back to real, traditional country music. I’m not going to be able to change it by myself and I’m not going to be able to fight it. I don’t look at radio as the villains, I really don’t. Because they’ve all been so nice to me and they’ve all taken me aside and told me,’We think you’re great and we love your voice. You’re one of the best singers in the industry. Please give us something we can play.
Our audience is younger and everything is changing.’ You know, rock and roll doesn’t sound the same now as it did in the Fifties. It’s evolved, it’s changed. So when the situation happened where my first album wasn’t doing well at radio, wasn’t so much mad at radio, I was mad at the way the world was changing and the way country music was changing (she laughs). I would never sing a song like” Guys Do It All The Time”. Not to say that’s a horrible song or anything, but I’m a country girl. I would never have someone pitch that song to me and just say,’ Yeah, that song will be great for me.’
I’m a country girl and I grew up working very hard, so the songs that I sing have to have meaning to me and have depth.
They don’t all have to be serious. This a dream of my mother, my brother and sisters, my grandmother, everybody in my home town. I come from a big family, we have seven kids. Craig (her husband) comes from a family with seven kids too. So he totally understands the value of, if you get put into a position where you can become a role model or a hero, you need to take that very seriously. Also, not only do I come from a poor farm family, I come from a big family and we totally understand the value of a dollar and the importance of family. Everybody is counting on this back home and sometimes that’s really a stressful situation for me to think about. But, that’s just the way it is. Radio and the executives in Nashville will respect the individual artist who takes a stand and says,’ I can’t go that way with my music. This is my way and I’m not going to budge.’ They will respect that and they’ll move on to work with another artist just like that. They’ll move on in a split second to the next person. I want to be a player in the game. I’ve never been a stubborn person.
The whole subject thing about compromising with this record has brought a lot of different responses from people in the press. I’ve done interviews with people who really loved my first record and have really tried to get me all fired up during the interviews because they’re so mad that I’ve compromised with my second record. They’ve tried to corner me and get me all fired up in order to get me to trash radio, because they’re so mad that I didn’t stick with Pete Anderson and I didn’t make this second record just like my first. I’ve had some really angry people do interviews with me. Now, my response to that is, I’m still able to tour and do shows and stick any kind of traditional song I want into my live shows. I’m still able to sing and I’m still able to perform which is the bottom line for me. I want to be in the game and I want to be on tour.
When I was siting there failing at radio with “Three Chords And The Truth”, there was no calls coming into my management’s office. There was nothing. You know, growing up on a farm and living in the country, totally shapes what you do and what you go for. I have the opportunity to go for the kind of opportunity and the kind of money that, if I’m successful, I can not only provide for Craig and I, I can provide for my own family and Craig’s too. That’s important to me.
So, when that telephone’s not ringing and you’re waiting for something to happen and nothing’s happening, then you come to terms the situation and you realize that you’ve got to play the game.