Evans, God, and Jesus

I thought it was a little unfair to talk about Sara Evans' A Real Fine Place until I'd given it a second listen, because the first time I put it on, I had a splitting Tuesday Cluster Headache, and the high register of Evans' fine, piping voice sounded ear-splitting and shrill.

While Joy Lynne White struggles along her independent path, singing songs about lonely girls with apartments in Nashville and the mistakes they make, Evans sings about that other extreme, people living the domestic life with husbands and partners and kids - and the mistakes they make.

The common threads in country music, of course, are those mistakes: the lyin', the cheatin', the drinkin' - the kind of thing that goes on all over the world, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, since the beginning of time, amen.

It's an odd-numbered year, which has meant major releases from the top women in Country (not to mention the up-and-coming pretenders). We've had Faith, Trisha, Martina, Chely, Gretchen, and now Sara, whose latest packs a real punch. It's a stronger set than her last outing, Restless, which means it's probably up there with her best, No Place That Far and Born to Fly.

Over at her web site, unusually, she gives some insight into the process of writing and recording songs for an album like this, and it's interesting to read (follow the link above). Unlike Ms Yearwood and Ms Hill, Evans writes some of her own material; that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be a stronger set, but it does put her somewhere between the personal vision you get from someone like Joy Lynn White and the classic interpretations of Trisha Yearwood.

"Coal Mine" is not the best choice of opener, because it's a little bit too frantic and shrill, even without a headache, but it does point to the edgy side of the album, the kind of sexiness you don't necessarily get from wholesome country singers - "I'll have nothin' on but the supper..." is a line straight out of the Desperate Housewives songbook. Another line, "I don't mind a king bee buzzing round my face," strikes me as being quite filthy, but maybe that's just my sick mind.

The theme of these 2005 releases has been "back to our roots," with Ms Hill singing "Mississippi Girl," Ms Yearwood singing about Jasper County, and Ms McBride singing classic songs from her formative years. Evans doesn't miss out on the trend, with a song called "Missing Missouri," of which she says, "Whoever wrote this has been stalking me."

In spite of the appearance of God in it, the one that speaks strongest to me is probably "You'll Always Be My Baby," with its opening scene of the 10 year old child waiting in dread for her father to get home. It's a role my mum forced on my dad, and it's horrible for a kid to sit waiting for hours, wondering what's going to happen. I've noticed a tendency for my own other half to greet me as I arrive home with stories about how horrible the kids have been. Given that I might only see them for an hour on a working day, I really don't want that hour to involve too much crime and punishment. Powerful song, anyway.

Who wins the 2005 Top Women of Country shootout? Ms Yearwood has to, simply because she has too much class to be beaten. Joy Lynne White wins as Top Independent, but I think Sara Evans comes second to both, for delivering a very strong set of songs with a real emotional core.