Sarah Johns - Big Love In A Small Town

Sarah Johns is a throwback to the era when women with firm country roots brought passionate vocals and world-class songwriting talent to bear on careers they pursued with laser intensity. The cream of that era?Loretta, Tammy, Dolly?are, as might be expected, the foundation of Sarah?s love of country music. They are also the touchstones for the dream she has pursued so fervently and so well, and they are the names that have come up as critics and reviewers discuss her music.



Sarah?s is a voice with both power and subtlety, singing songs in the classic country mold amid crisp 21st-century production. Given her background, her natural gifts, her clear-eyed vision and her undeniable work ethic, it?s not surprising that she has burst seemingly fully formed onto the country scene. What is perhaps incredible is the fact that five years ago the thought of singing country music in Nashville was a distant dream.



About that time, she was singing in her local church, something she had done since she was not much more than a toddler, when the man who ran the sound system approached her.



?You?re really good,? he told her. ?You need to do something with this.?



Encouraged, she sang a handful of concerts in area churches and raised enough money to record a CD before deciding to follow her heart into country music. What followed was an odyssey with plenty of twists and turns, promise and disappointment, that has led ultimately to a debut record that brilliantly captures the huge talent and country sensibilities that have brought her here.



It doesn?t get much more country than Sarah. She grew up in Pollard, Kentucky, a town so small it doesn?t even appear on a map. There were few kids around, and she and her brothers spent plenty of time outdoors, ?playing with rocks and sticks and making mud pies.?