When we first heard from Sara Evans three years ago, she was steeped in the sounds of traditional country on her major label debut, "Three Chords and the Truth."

Great album, but no breakthroughs on the commercial front.

That led to a stylistic change on "No Place That Far" with a more glossy, pop-veering sound and little of the traditional bent.

Apparently, the place in mind was number one on the charts because that was exactly where Evans landed on the smash single title track with backing vocals from Vince Gill.

And now the Missouri native isn't afraid to mix up different musical sounds on her latest, "Born to Fly," which the confident singer hopes will propel her to the next tier.

"I was determined to try not to make it anything (in particular musically). I was determined to ignore any criticisms that I might get about not holding onto that traditional sound. I was just writing songs and choosing songs that I thought were beautiful and left it at that."

"(Co-producer) Paul (Worley) and I had a blast in making this record," says Evans in a telephone interview from her Nashville area home. "Some of it came out sounding pretty country. Some of it came out sounding not so country. I really believe I found this time 'Sara's sound.'"

Evans makes no bones that she is upbeat about the new album. "I definitely am positive. It's funny (that) I'm an optimist. I'm a Type A personality. I'm a perfectionist, but I love, love sad sad songs, sad movies, that whole thing. I rarely get down. I rarely am in a bad mood. We're real go getters."

Evans, 29, indicated she expected some negative reaction from traditional diehards about "Born to Fly."

"I knew they (the criticisms) would be there, so I determined myself beforehand not to pay any attention to that because it's not really accurate and not really fair. My voice is traditional and is really country. There's nothing that says that Sara Evans has to stick to traditional country music especially when it doesn't seem to be what the fans are wanting."

While "Born to Fly" does not have the spare sounding tradition of "Three Chords...," it certainly is not devoid of traditional country. The sad ballad "I Learned That From You" is filled with lots of pedal steel adding to the emotion.

Evans certainly has one powerful voice, even more evident in concert than on the silver platter.

She has been compared to country diva Patty Loveless, something that suits Evans just fine thank you. Listening to "Born to Fly," it's easy to imagine Loveless singing almost any of the 11 songs.

Evans penned six of them. That is nothing new as Evans wrote large chunks of the material on both "Three Chords..." and "No Place..." The interesting thing is Evans never wrote a song before preparing for her debut.

Not surprisingly, there is a hopeful edge to many songs.

"I was so happy and secure and confident. I really did have this incredible attitude that life is incredible, that life is wonderful. Lots of emotion came from that."

Indicative of the strength and positive outlook is "I Keep Looking." The song, which Evans wrote the song with Nashville veteran Tom Shapiro and Tony Martin, contains the line "I keep lookin' for something more," later followed by "It's only human not to be satisfied."

The trio also wrote "No Place That Far."

Evans says, however, "I Keep Looking" was not really intended to be viewed with such an upbeat outlook. "It wasn't really meant to be a positive song as much as humorous that we're not satisfied - we're always looking for something better than we have. That's me totally."

"I hate a bedroom a certain color, and then I change my mind. I think there's something better. I suffer from that."

Prior to writing for the new album, Evans says she listened to "to a lot of Sheryl Crow, and I was listening to Martina McBride's new record, 'Emotion' at the time. I thought that was very cool. I was also listening to (folk-oriented singer) Patti Griffith. That was kind of what was in my head."

Evans says that she "just thought the song selection (on McBride's album) was so cool and the way the lyrics were not so straight down the middle and not the typical lyrics that you'd hear on a Martina record or a country record. Sometimes you don't even know what she's talking about. I thought that was so cool."

"If she can do it, I can do it," Evans says, adding, "I just allowed myself that freedom."

Evans says another influence were the changes she has undergone since her last album. Besides having a big hit under her belt, she became a mother, giving birth to her son, Avery, in August 1999.

Musically, Evans ascribes the biggest change to drummer Matt Chamberlain, a rock drummer who has worked with The Wallflowers, Pearl Jam, Fiona Apple and Macy Gray.

"He's just amazing," says Evans. "I was a big fan of his drumming. It absolutely made all the difference in the world. It sounds absolutely different than everything else because of him."

"He's not one of three drummers (in Nashville)," says Evans, a reference to the small circle of studio musicians who play on album after album.

"He just wasn't conditioned to country radio. He just read the charts and played what he felt. The ends of all the songs just go on forever because everyone wanted to keep on playing. He has such a sound and such a groove. They all have these long, drawn out endings, and that's why."

The lead-off single and title track cracked the Top 10. If all goes well, Evans sees an album going five singles deep.

Marcus Hummon, who has penned a number of hits including "Cheap Seats" for Alabama, called Evans' manager to ask to her write with her. The result was the title track with Darrell Scott also helping out.

"Of course, I was excited (about writing with him)," says Evans. "I love his writing. We wrote about three songs together. He's so creative. He can play anything that I sing. He takes me places melodically that I would not have gone. 'Born to Fly' just keeps going up and up and up. Just when you think you've heard the whole melody, it kind of changes again."

"I love what it says," says Evans. "It's just a real positive, dreamy kind of song."

While the title may be "Born to Fly," some might argue Evans was born to sing. The third oldest of seven children, Evans grew up in central Missouri on a farm in New Franklin, a town of 1,200 people.

Her parents, who divorced when she was 12, raised wheat, corn and soybeans with lots of hogs and cattles.

New Franklin was Small Town, USA.

"We went to church, and we were a very conservative family. Seven kids and farmers, so we had no time to do anything else. My parents were real strict. I never did drugs. I never even smoked marijuana."

"It was wonderful. All the other kids were just like me. They were farmers. The only difference was that I was a singer and somewhat of a little celebrity. So, that was fun."

"Basically, life was very simple. It was small town where you picked a boyfriend, and you dated him all through high school."

Evans' singing career started at the ripe, old age of four when she sang in the family bluegrass band. She soon started taking mandolin lessons.

"Music just came real easy for me. For me and all my brothers and sisters. Who knows where that came from? My parents aren't real musical. They both can sing real well."

The family band played bluegrass festivals in the summertime. When she was eight, the band opened for Bill Monroe, though Evans didn't recall much about the music.

"I remember there was a tornado that night, really scary."

A few years later, Evans recorded an album of country cover songs and sold them herself.

Evans doesn't seem to have a very clear memory about the recording. When asked the title, "Gosh, I can't remember, probably 'Sara Evans.'"

It was a low budget affair. "We didn't have any marketing people," she says.

They did make a trip to Nashville, having a booth at Fan Fair.

"We sort of naturally graduated (from bluegrass to country). It wasn't like bluegrass was the only thing we listened to or played, but when we were little, that's what it was. There was no drums. It was all Old Timey, bluegrass songs. When we got older, we did country songs."

"When I got into my teens, my brother Matt (he's still her bassist) and I were the only ones who stayed real serious about music. We played in bar bands. We played country...There were all kinds of little Eagles lodges and dances. Things like that. There was work every weekend. We would drive an hour sometimes too on the weekends to go play."

The repertoire consisted of "every Reba McEntire song. I just used to love Baillie and the Boys. Every Patty Loveless."

Evans hit college - Central Methodist - for a grand total of 11 days despite getting a full ride scholarship to a school with a good music department. "I was just miserable, and all I wanted to do was move to Nashville. I was 18 and cocky and didn't want to take instructions of how to sing from anyone."

"I quit school. Matt and I saved money by working and performing in clubs in Columbia as much as we could. We moved to Nashville. I was looking to become a country star. I didn't have any idea how was I was going to about that. We just moved here, and we started this venture into song writing. We were meeting people."

Evans quickly met the man, Craig Schelske, who would become her husband.

Evans contacted a lawyer friend whose wife was a song plugger (they pitch songs to artists to record) for Sony/Tree. The woman was itching to get into management and after hearing a tape of Evans singing, had herself a client.

Evans started doing demo work, singing songs being pitched to artists to potentially record.

Her manager set up meetings with industry folks including Joe Galante, the head of RCA. "They said have her come in and sing for Joe Galante. He signed me that day. It was a seven-album deal. With a great advance. It was just a dream come true."

The elation did not last forever given the success or lack thereof of the first album.

"I was very discouraged with the single, "Three Chords..." I can't count how many times I've heard that's the biggest song radio ever missed. That was discouraging because I knew it was a great song, and everybody in Nashville knew it was a great song. It was released same exact day as (Lee Ann Womack's) "The Fool." There were a lot of things that played into it that were out of my control. Radio saw me as just a little bit too retro."

The title track only reached the mid-40's on the Billboard charts.

The first single, "True Lies," released in March 1997, only reached 59, while a third single, the more uptempo "Shame About That," did slightly worse.

While the album garnered great reviews, the truth was the album didn't sell.

A lack of hit singles will do that.

Evans readily admits she was anxious about her second album, which, in almost every case in the country record industry, would be a make or break album.

"Yes. I put a lot of pressure on myself because I wanted to succeed. I was really very calculating with that record. I was just determined to get radio to fall in love with me, and it worked."

"No Place That Far" turned the trick.

But discouragement returned when the next single, "Fool, I'm a Woman" "topped at 22 or something like that. That was really discouraging...That was because no one wanted to come off 'No Place...' No one wanted to play a new single. You have mistakes that are made. They (RCA) conceded that - that it was too soon."

The Type A Evans did not let up for album number three.

"I put a lot of pressure on myself for the third record. I wanted to go out on this radio tour. We hit it for six weeks non stop. I just had to go back out and see these radio people and say, 'You've got to listen this. This is something that you can't deny.' I wanted to say 'I'm your Faith Hill.'" This is my year. This is my time. I've got the voice for it. I've got the album for it. So, here it is."

"Now, I feel it's totally my time. Everything about me is just winding up great. I've got my baby and family intact. I've got my career to where I'm organized - staff and things I need. Things I need to make it comfortable and successful. The album's going great. I'm really going great. I love this record. No matter what happens, I'm proud."