Rating:
Genre:
Country
Release Date: 10/27/1998
Run Time: 37:04
On the follow-up to her surprise 1997 debut hit,
Three Chords and the Truth, singer and songwriter
Sara Evans shocked many of the fans who embraced it with
No Place That Far. Where
Dwight Yoakam producer and guitarist
Pete Anderson helped
Evans shape a modern version of hardcore
country traditionalism on the first disc,
RCA brought in producers
Buddy Cannon and
Norro Wilson to protect their investment and take her to the next level by adding plenty of sheen and shine -- and a slew of celebrity guests for good measure. It worked:
No Place That Far firmly established
Evans as a bona fide superstar, a down-home singer with the pipes of a diva. Almost immediately, she entered the pantheon reserved for singers like
Martina McBride (who appears here) and
Trisha Yearwood (who she basically replaced) in the spotlight.
Evans co-wrote five of the set's 11 tunes including the title track, which was a smash out of the box. It's not that slick
pop completely replaced the torch and twang in
Evans' voice and songs; it's more like it was integrated gradually, eventually replacing it. There are still a number of cuts here that show off
Evans' roots sound: the opener,
"The Great Unknown," co-written with
Phil Barnhart and
James House;
"These Days," written with the great
Matraca Berg; and the closer,
"There's Only One," penned with
Leslie Satcher. But the title track, written with
Tony Martin and
Tom Shapiro, could have been released in 2007 -- it bore the adult
pop mark of the new
contemporary country sound. With backing vocals by heavy hitters like
Vince Gill and
McBride, it was destined for the Top Five. The soaring emotional euphoria in the refrain (which seemingly underscores the definition of transcendent love) was impossible to resist. Another notable cut is
Jamie O'Hara's
country pub rock shuffle
"The Crying Game." (It sounds like it was written by
Hank DeVito and produced like it was a track on an early
Rosanne Cash or
Rodney Crowell record.) It was a place where
Evans' voice was left pretty much untreated and allowed to display its natural range and emotional depth.
"Fool, I'm a Woman," with its sprightly mandolins, ringing electric guitars, and crackling snare drum, is another of those crossover tunes that landed as a single. In all, the album scored three, and placed
Evans in the multi-platinum category at the top of the charts, where every effort since has landed.
~Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
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