Growing up in her family band in Missouri, Sara Evans learned two valuable lessons: always imbue a song with palpable emotion, and quickly change directions if a number tends to flop. Both rules have kept Evans in the big leagues the last 10 years. If she’s moved more squarely into the mainstream during this time, her adenoidal delivery and "Show Me State"-twang keeps her down on the farm, and she has not forgotten where she came from, as the irresistible hoedown head-bobber "Suds in the Bucket" proves. Evans has a tendency to wear rose-colored glasses when looking to the romantic horizon ("No Place That Far"), but it works in her favor on "As If," a bouncy, rockin’ hormone rush in the advent of new love. The first of four new songs, "As If" is a perfect "starting over" tune in the wake of her messy 2006 divorce. "Love You With All My Heart" and "Pray for You" echo the new-beginnings theme. If "Some Things Never Change" seems a tired nod to routine family values, Evans apparently remembers a third lesson from her family-band days: Playing it safe will never get you kicked off the stage. --Alanna Nash