You say your every day is a bad dream that keep repeating...

Karma's a bitch, isn't it?

You know, I just couldn't write a more delicious piece of turnaround if I tried. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, here's the short of it. Sara Evans is a country singer, a really good country singer, that I had such the swoon for. However she fell into the "soccer mom" Republican Stepford Wife syndrome Martina McBride apparently succumbed to after her lobotomy (jk). Performing in all her wholesome white-girl glory at the 2004 Republican National Convention, she's one step farther and married a right-wing hack by the name of Craig Schelske, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in Oregon. Here's their "warm and fuzzy" photo with the preznit.
And here's the total Stepford wife collection (the caption reads "There's nothing more beautiful than a Republican woman!")Looks like a big night out at the drag queen show. (And Reba, cut a little back on the face peel between lifts...) Schelske ran on the morals and guntoting ticket, and apparently schlepped Sara to wherever he needed to campaign. And still lost. In 2002 even.

Well, funny thing. Turns out they weren't the lovely god-fearing couple after all. Amidst Sara appearing on Dancing With The Stars, it suddenly came out that she was quitting the show while divorcing Schelske. And not just the run-of-the-mill we just can't work it out divorce. I'm talking the "he's exposed the kids to porn" and "taking anal sex pictures with different women on the computer" kind of divorce. He fired back that she was having an affair on him and having a nervous breakdown. Meanwhile he's accused of advertising on Craiglist (no pun intended) for women and threeways. Hmmmm, this from a man who reportedly refused to let Evans' costumer from Dancing With The Stars come in their house becuase he was a "sodomite". Well touche', Craig, I guess I'll save a seat for you in hell, then.

Well, some people may feel the pity on Sara, as the attacked and scorned woman. Me, notsomuch. In the immortal words of Ricky Ricardo, "Lucy, you've got some 'splainin' to do". Just goes to show that the more people proselytize, the more these holy-rollers are hiding in their respective closets.

And thus end my rant.

By the way, A Real Fine Place is a fantastic album.

As opposed to Martina McBride, who's now stuck in the feel-good swamp of SUV country, Evans actually is still using her talent. And it must be good to overcome the built-in prejudice I had going in (see above rant for that). But A Real Fine Place continues the A-team pattern established with her previous albums Restless and Born To Fly. The best songs are frontloaded, though, with classic tracks like the bouncy title love song, and the epic "New Hometown". The album begins with the fun and sexy swing of "Coalmine", and the poppy production of "Supernatural" would have been a good choice for a radio single. Though sad to say (well, for her) the highlight of this album is the sassy single "Cheatin'", where Sara reconnects to see how bad her unfaithful ex is doing. (Hmmm... were you planning on singin' that anytime soon, now?). "You'll Always Be My Baby" surprisingly teaches the value of forgiveness (hmm, you think then you wouldn't be preaching about others' differences?). The rest of the album isn't so much memorable, but well done and very listenable. I got the special edition with four extra songs, with one good one ("Caged"), two toss-offs, and one not-bad but not-so-necessary live version of an older hit ("Suds In The Bucket").

Well, If you ignore the gossip and take the album on its own merits, A Real Fine Place is a real winner, not as great as Born To Fly or Restless, but a great addition to a good country album collection.

And Martina, I'm not through with your sorry self. I'll be reviewin' you very soon. And you'd better check your hubby's e-mail, he does have a purty mouth.

Grade: B+
Best Cuts: "Cheatin'", "A Real Fine Place To Start", "Coalmine", "New Hometown"
Weakest Links: "Best Days Are Coming", "You" (both on special edition).

A Real Fine Place hit #3 pop albums and #1 country albums.
"A Real Fine Place To Start" hit #1 country, and #38 pop.
"Cheatin'" made #9 country and #69 pop.
"Coalmine" made #37 country.
"You'll Always Be My Baby" so far made #27 country.
"Missing Missouri" so far hit #56 country.

You can pick up A Real Fine Place at websites like here and here.

To listen to the song "New Hometown", you can download by clicking here (right click to bring up a new window)

And here's an older video of Sara's, I love it to pieces, it's one of her best songs, "Saints And Angels".



And here's the video from this album's "You'll Always Be My Baby".