Sara Evans Greatest Hits CD

Personnel: Sara Evans (background vocals); John Shanks (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, electric bass, background vocals); Dan Dugmore (pedal steel guitar); Jonathan Yudkin (banjo, mandolin, violin, fiddle, viola, cello, harmonium, upright bass); Charles Judge (piano, Hammond b-3 organ, keyboards, programming); Paul Bushnell (electric bass); Jeff Rothschild (drums, programming); Chris McHugh, Abe Laboriel, Jr. (drums); Matt Evans, Ashley Evans Simpson, Hillary Lindsey, Vince Gill (background vocals).
A stint on the TV reality hit DANCING WITH THE STARS (which unfortunately was shortened by a messy and very public divorce) brought Sara Evans to the same sort of mainstream pop attention that singers such as Faith Hill, the Dixie Chicks, or Carrie Underwood were familiar with. As a well-chosen précis of her career up to that point, 2007's GREATEST HITS is a fine introduction to an underrated country talent. Gathering 10 songs from Evans's first five albums plus four brand-new songs, including the defiant first single, "As If," GREATEST HITS is a textbook example of how to program a best-of compilation that will attract both devoted fans and newcomers.
Sara Evans wasted no time getting back to what she does best in the music game after her divorce. While it's true that this is a compilation released just a week after the messy event was final, this set arrived and four of its 14 cuts are new tracks. There are some real problems with assembling a collection like this: for starters it contains not a single cut from her excellent debut, Three Chords and the Truth, issued in 1997. Greatest Hits is essentially every big single, but ignores some of the also-rans in favor of new songs. That's fine and its accurate, but it feels incomplete. The new cuts are part of the problem: the album opens with "As If," an anthemic but generic love song written with Hillary Lindsey and John Shanks, who produced all the new cuts (and you can be sure at least two of them will end up on her next studio effort). The cut is full of big, compressed guitars and muted, programmed-sounding drums -- despite the fact that Evans has one of the best bands in the business. Her own amazing voice is covered over by the production, and the lyrics coming out at this particular time are sure to invite speculation -- but perhaps that's part of the game plan. Nashville's publicity game is as savvy as L.A.'s or New York's, no matter what they show on the surface. The bottom line is the track doesn't cut it. It might even be a hit because Evans fans are notoriously faithful (and they should be, for she hasn't let them down yet, but this effort is still substandard for such a fine writer). The other new cuts, which make up the last three on the disc, are also co-written with Shanks, along with either Aimee Mayo, Lindsey, and Matt Evans (right, her brother). "I Love You with All My Heart" is another big love song, but it fares far better than "As If." It contains drama and is dynamic despite its rather hopelessly compressed acoustic and electric guitar sound (that makes everything sound thin). It's almost as if Shanks is going for a contemporary country version of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, with a million guitars, big fiddles, layered pianos, drums, and a flat-sounding bassline that just keeps time. Whatever it is, it doesn't work. Evans, who is a truly gifted singer and an excellent judge of her own production, must have had a hard year to let this guy touch her music. But the melody redeems the track, and its feel in large part is more emotive and less contrived than its predecessor. "Pray for You" is an honest-to-goodness country song, and this feels like Evans at her strongest. It's a story-song, full of memory, longing, and reflection. The melody is quite beautiful, and Evans allows her voice to let the song guide it rather than shoving the song through the band's racket. The closer, "Some Things Never Change," is another country-rock tune with reedy fi