Sara Evans Biography

Sara Evans was born Feb. 5, 1971, in Boonville, Missouri, and raised on a farm near New Franklin, Missouri. Two of her brothers began playing instruments, at when Evans was 4, her mother discovered that her daughter could sing.Helping to support the household, earning $50 a night. When Evans was 16, she began performing every Saturday night at a club near Columbia, Missouri, a gig that lasted two years.

Sara Evans moved to Nashville in 1991 and met a musician from Oregon named Craig Schelske who had a band with his two brothers. She headed back with them to Oregon in May 1992 but returned to Nashville in 1995 to record demos. In late 1995, songwriter Harlan Howard heard Evans sing a new demo of his classic "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail" and said, "Girl, I have been looking for you for years to sing my music. You're great!"The tape of the song was passed along to RCA, which released her retro, twangy debut Three Chords and the Truth in 1997. It failed to make a commercial impact but was praised by critics. For her second album, Evans tried mainstream contemporary country, and took "No Place That Far" to No. 1.

The title track from her third album, Born to Fly, also reached No. 1. Restless arrived in 2003. In 2004, Evans was the most-played female singer on country music radio and also performed at the 2004 Republican National Convention. In 2005 Evans released the album, Real Fine Place, was propelled to No. 1 on the country charts and No. 3 on the pop charts.


Then she released Feels Like Home through Cracker Barrel stores. People magazine named Evans among its annual "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" for 2005. In 2006, R&R announced Evans as Female Vocalist of the Year in its 2006 Readers' Poll. Evans married Craig Schelske, an aspiring politician, in 1993 and filed for divorce in 2006. Evans and Schelske have three children: Avery Jack Lyons (born 21 August 1999), Olivia Margaret (born 22 January 2003) and Audrey Elizabeth (born 6 October 2004).