Sara Lynn Evans was born February 5, 1971, and raised on a farm near New Franklin, Missouri as the oldest girl amongst seven children. Music has always been a part of her life and by age five was singing every weekend in her family's band. When she was sixteen, she began performing at a nightclub near Columbia, Missouri, a gig that lasted two years. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1991 with the goal of becoming a country artist. Songwriter Harlan Howard heard Sara as she sung a demo of one of his songs