Sara Evans Grows Stronger With New Album

Sara Evans seems poised for a comeback with yesterday’s (3/8) release of Stronger, her first full-length studio set since 2005’s Real Fine Place.

Signaling the potential for solid first-week sales is news that the album’s lead single, “A Little Bit Stronger,” is already approaching 500,000 paid downloads (Nielsen SoundScan). The track is steadily climbing the MusicRow Country Breakout chart, landing at No. 16 last week.

Evans went through major personal and professional changes between albums. Personally, she experienced a divorce, remarriage, and move to Birmingham. Professionally, her celebrity status got a boost from an appearance on Dancing With The Stars, and she changed management teams, joining Spalding Entertainment. She also signed a book deal and released a greatest hits album.

When it came time to get to work on her sixth album for RCA Nashville, Evans recruited hitmaking producers Nathan Chapman and Tony Brown for the project.

She co-wrote six of the album’s 10 tracks, and turned to some of Nashville’s best writers for the rest, including Luke Laird, Hillary Lindsey and Hillary Scott, who penned the first single. Evans and Leslie Satcher co-wrote “Ticket to Ride,” and the singer teamed with Marcus Hummon for “Desperately.” Other tracks include a remake of the Rod Stewart hit “My Heart Can’t Tell You No,” from the pens of Nashville songwriter Dennis Morgan, and Simon Climie. Evans also worked with Marti Frederiksen, who produced the track “Wildfire,” which he co-wrote with the artist, her brother Matt Evans, and Kara DioGuardi.

Evans is promoting the new album in New York with appearances on Good Morning America, and Hannity, as well as a signing event at Barnes & Noble, for her album and new novel Softly and Tenderly.

Evans has career sales totaling more than five million units, driven by No. 1 hits including “Born to Fly,” “No Place That Far,” “Suds in the Bucket,” and “A Real Fine Place to Start.”