“Born to Fly”
Sara Evans
Written by Sara Evans, Marcus Hummon, and Darrell Scott
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
January 20, 2001
Sara Evans was born to be a traditional country singer, yet she still managed to successfully navigate the crossover era of the early twenty first century with nimbleness.
In 2001, that was because she was smart enough to split the difference between the candy coated pop of Faith Hill and Shania Twain, and the rootsy girl power sounds of the Chicks. “Born to Fly” borrows heavily from “Wide Open Spaces,” and sprinkles enough sparkly glitter on top to help it fit comfortably next to the latest AC-baiting hits from Martina McBride and Jo Dee Messina.
Evans gives one of her most charming vocal performances here, tapping into the wide eyed innocence of a small town girl dreaming of a brighter tomorrow. There has to be a world with confidants beyond the preacher and the scarecrow, right?
Evans would struggle when she tried to go full pop, as she does on the follow up single, “I Could Not Ask For More.” But this is her wheelhouse, and she knocks it out of the park quite effortlessly.
“Born to Fly” gets an A.
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This is a nice song done well. I agree she was born for traditional country, but I can’t blame her for the attempts to be a bit more pop. For this song I would give it a solid “B”.
After a few years of struggling to find the right identity, Sara Evans definitely found it with this record. It’s clearly more of a pop-flavored lane that she intended to embark upon, but I’m glad she did. She was not only one of the few females to persevere after 9/11, but she projected a contagious ray of sunshine upon the listener with most of her material and vocal presentation. I certainly never considered her among the top tier of female artists of her era, and on numerous records I found some of the notes she hit to be downright displeasing to the ear, but I still thought she maneuvered as deftly as possible in her lane.
I felt bad for her in 1999, a year chockful of chart performance disappointment, when she telegraphed her pending lane shift with the fun “Fool I’m a Woman” but ultimately got overshadowed by the similarly titled Shania Twain song. “Born to fly” was a fitting metaphor for what came next as this song was a perfect representative of the feel-good country playlists of 2000 and she was poised to soar amidst it. While there were at least couple of songs from her hits roster that I liked better, I think it’s fair to say this was her career hit, and a deserved one. Bonus points to the “Wizard of Oz” themed video which really helped sell the premise.
Grade: B+
“I’ve been telling my dreams to the scarecrow.” Home run in the first line. I love how her voice sounds on this, and how the production adds pop without subtracting Country. Love everything about it. I do agree some of her later songs pushed a little too pop, but at the same time I don’t think she ever made a song I truly disliked.
…that first verse plus chorus would make it a great dedication to the late pope francis. note to self: check the calibration of your heathen nature and the engine oil.
if that thing is not uplifting, what is?
Great song from a great album. Definitely a shift in sound, but not a total pop grab a la Hill (Breathe) or McBride (I Love You). I will say that, like Patty Loveless, I’m not sure the pop lane is Evans’ strong suit (I thought I Could Not Ask For More was fine, if inferior to the Edwin McCain version). Her cover of Hornsby’s Every Little Kiss,however, is excellent.