After the commercial and critical success
Sara Evans rightfully garnered for 1998's
No Place That Far and the extensive tour she undertook to support it, Born to Fly emphasizes the more contemporary sounds on the recording, while placing some of the rootsy bluegrass back in the mix. She does this with the confidence and authority of a seasoned veteran who is in control of her work. Sitting in the producer's chair for the first time with
Paul Worley,
Evans co-wrote six of the set's 11 tracks. The studio players assembled on this date are impressive:
Ricky Skaggs,
Jerry Douglas,
Randy Scruggs,
Dan Dugmore,
Bruce Hornsby,
Biff Watson,
Aubrey Haynie,
Jonathan Yudkin, and
Glenn Worf, to name a few. The standout cuts are the playful title track and first single, "Born to Fly," with its fiddles, Dobros, and mandolins; the nostalgic ballad "I Learned That from You," with its whinnying pedal steel; and covers of
Edwin McCain's "I Could Not Ask for More" and the closer, a reading of
Hornsby's gently choogling back-porch love song "Every Little Kiss."
Evans moved to the top of the charts again with this one, and was able to go four deep for singles, solidifying her place at the beginning of the 21st century. ~ Thom Jurek