Sara Evans has always been one of my favorite country singers. Her voice has a wide range that can cover everything from tender ballads to heavy, guitar-driven hits. Her vast array of songs cover hits from the late 90’s up to today and many have become radio and line dancing classics.
Evans brought her Christmas tour to the Rocksino on Friday, December 8 with a short, but hit-driven show that combined some of her best classics along with holiday favorites. Opening with “Long Way Down,” from her current release, Evans and her band kept the energy up with songs such as “Real Fine Place To Start,” “Perfect” and “As If.”
After talking with the audience about her recent experiences of taking her children to concerts and how different it was for her to be part of the audience instead of on-stage, she and her band turned to the music more festive and delivered some holiday music including the title track of her Christmas release, “At Christmas,” along with the classic, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” and “Silent Night.”
After the first set of holiday tunes Evans and her band kicked it back up with her current single, “Marquee Sign,” along with “Stronger” and “Born To Fly,” Her 6-piece band was stripped down from her usual touring band, but nonetheless performed flawlessly the entire night. Evans took some time to introduce her band paying special attention to her bass player and backup singer. She joked around with them for a few minutes and then finally introduce them as her brother (on bass) and her sister (on vocals) and told the audience how wonderful it has been to have them on the road with her for many years.
After a rousing version of “Suds in the Bucket,” Evans delivered more holiday songs including “Sleigh Bells,” “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” “O Holy Night” and “Run Run Rudpolph” to finish of the show. After a few minutes she came back and performed an encore of the Walk The Moon Hit, “Shut Up & Dance With Me,” to close out the night.
I was disappointed that the show was short (about 75 minutes) and did not include a couple of her biggest hits such as “I Could Not Ask For More.” Evans is definitely a world-class singer and has one of the best voices in country music. The only thing that could have made the show “perfect” was to keep it going longer.
