While growing up poor in rural Missouri, Evans performed with her family’s band. She eventually married and moved to Oregon in 1992 but continued to perform – as Sara Evans & North Santiam. The group opened for Willie Nelson and Tim McGraw, among others, but Evans eventually returned to Nashville to try to remake her career. There, she impressed songwriter Harlan Howard enough that he recommended her to RCA executives, who connected her with producer Pete Anderson (a veteran of many albums by Dwight Yoakam). After her debut album, Three Chords and the Truth, was released in July 1997, Evans earned a special honor by being handpicked by George Jones to open a special show in Nashville. No Place That Far followed a year later, and in 2000, she resurfaced with Born to Fly, which made the Top Ten of Billboard’s country charts. She followed that up with 2003’s Restless, and returned in 2005 with the Top Ten album Real Fine Place. She returned to the popular arena with Stronger in early 2011. More recently, she released Words in 2017. Sara Evans continues to tour the country.