Madison Nickell • The Daily Beacon
The audience could not ask for more
Evans brings familiar and new sounds to Knoxville stage Courtney Whited Copy Editor
“The only woman I’d ever leave you for is Sara Evans,” I heard one audience member in the row behind me say to his date. Evans’ first album, “Three Chords and the Truth,” debuted in 1997, and her highest-charting album, “Restless,” came out in 2003, but that doesn’t mean Evans isn’t as talented as ever. As Evans sang her popular hits, such as “As If,” “Backseat of a Greyhound Bus,” “I Could Not Ask For More” and, of course, “Suds in the Bucket,” the crowd hooped, hollered and sang along to the familiar favorites. Evans showed off her vocal range
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throughout the concert, and if it hadn’t been for the enthusiastically interactive fans surrounding me, I would have sworn I was sitting in my car listening to her CD rather than hearing her live. The chemistry between her and the band was obvious, and she made sure to thank them and have her fans cheer loudly for each member. Two of the band members were her siblings, with her brother Matt Evans on bass guitar and sister Leslie Evans Lyons singing backup vocals. “She ran off with many rednecks, but she always came back,” Evans, joking about her sister before singing “Suds in the Bucket,” said. Before Evans hit the stage, however, new country artist Courtney Cole opened. Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana but currently living in Nashville, Cole
sang songs with similar themes to the ones that Evans would sing after her: heartbreak and love. Citing The Dixie Chicks as one of her main inspirations, Cole worked to pump up the crowd with personal anecdotes and songs like her newest single “Free.99,” which came with a story about her going to Nashville bars with her friends and competing to see who could get the most free drinks. “Sometimes that number was zero. It happens,” Cole said. While Cole was obviously not the household name that Evans is, the audience responded well to her. When she said that during the 15 minutes between her performance and that of Evans she would be in the lobby selling CDs and giving out free hugs, a line quickly began to wrap around the lobby.
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Beyond the up-and-coming songs of Cole and the fan-favorites of Evans, Evans also performed songs from her newest album “Slow Me Down,” which came out in 2014, as well as one song from the album that she recorded in Nashville immediately prior to the concert. These songs, “Not Over You” and “Can’t Stop Loving You,” were able to mix the Evans’ voice that the audience was accustomed to with a more modern sound, and while it was a shock to hear Evans’ end her concert with “Shut Up and Dance,” originally by Walk the Moon, it was an energetic finish that had the crowd buzzing. “Honestly, (this is) the best concert I’ve been to in a long time; she’s still got it,” one woman said to her group of friends as she exited the coliseum.
Monday, February 6, 2017