Sara Evans

With a voice as big as Texas and twice as soulful, Sara Evans mixes pure country heart and pop-star instincts in a way that's always seemed to fit in everywhere, from Lilith Fair to Dancing with the Stars. How did Evans earn armfuls of awards and become a multi-platinum mega-star? By simultaneously keeping it country on songs like "Suds in the Bucket," where banjo pickin' and steel-guitar swoops frame the tale of a young girl growing up fast, and pushing the pure-pop button with the irresistible melody and turbo-charged rhythm of leaping-into-love anthem "A Real Fine Place to Start." Better not cross her, though — you've never heard a harsher heave-ho than her spurned-lover's revenge song "Cheatin'."

Sara shows her roots in Next Steps.

Don't be fooled — beneath Sara Evans' glamorous, cover-girl looks and pop-crossover success, there beats the heart of a country traditionalist. She comes off like Patsy Cline fronting Ray Price's band on the classic country shuffle "True Lies," a tune she wrote with NRBQ's Big Al Anderson. Evans lets her down-home roots hang out on "Missing Missouri," a nostalgic song of longing for her girlhood home that really makes you hear that heartland heartache. And when Evans truly gets her twang on with the self-penned "Shame About That," she sounds like Dwight Yoakam's long-lost sister, which makes even more sense when you hear her tackle Yoakam's own two-stepping lonesome holler "The Distance Between You and Me."

Sara Evans is one of that rare breed of country stars who manages to appeal to almost every camp in country fandom — from the old-schoolers to envelope-pushers — while maintaining her own unmistakable identity. One minute the mercurial Ms. Evans could be making a country/pop crossover smash out of folk-rocker Edwin McCain's "I Could Not Ask for More," the next she's chiming in with country duo the Warren Brothers on last-dance-at-the-saloon ballad "That's the Beat of a Heart." But whether she's running barefoot through the bluegrass on "Coalmine," bringing you along for the ride on broad-screen travelogue "Backseat of a Greyhound Bus," or taking you back to church with a countrified take on gospel standard "Just a Closer Walk With Thee," she's always 100% Sara, and here's the place to tap into every electrifying side of her musical personality.