''Slow Me Down'' is the seventh studio album by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

artist

Sara Evans Sara Lynn Evans (; born February 5, 1971) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She is also credited as a record producer, actress, and author. She had five songs reach the number one spot on the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboar ...

, released in 2014 by

RCA Nashville RCA Nashville is an American country music record label based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is distributed by Sony Music Nashville which is part of Sony Music. Artists Current artists *Kane Brown * Corey Kent * Nate Smith * Morgan Wade Former art ...

Content

Evans co-wrote three of the album's eleven tracks and co-produced the record with

Mark Bright Mark Abraham Bright (born 6 June 1962) is an English sports correspondent and former Association football, footballer. Born to a The Gambia, Gambian father and English mother, he was adopted into a foster family in Stoke-on-Trent at an early a ...

, whom she previously worked with on 2005's ''

Real Fine Place ''Real Fine Place'' is the fifth studio album by American country music artist Sara Evans. It was released in October 2005 via RCA Records Nashville. It is the follow-up album to the platinum '' Restless.'' It features Evans's fourth number one ...

''. The album includes a cover of

Gavin DeGraw Gavin Shane DeGraw (born February 4, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter. DeGraw rose to fame with his song "I Don't Want to Be" from his debut album ''Chariot (album), Chariot'' (2003); the song became the main theme song for The WB/The CW, ...

's " Not Over You," with him providing harmony vocals, and a duet with Isaac Slade of

The Fray The Fray is an American rock band from Denver, Colorado, formed in 2002 by schoolmates Isaac Slade and Joe King. Their debut studio album, '' How to Save a Life'' (2005) was released by Epic Records and received quadruple platinum certific ...

on "Can't Stop Loving You."

Vince Gill Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He played in a number of local bluegrass music, bluegrass bands in the 1970s, and from 1978 to 1982, he achieved his first mainstream attention after ta ...

, who last collaborated with Evans on her 1998 No. 1 hit "

No Place That Far ''No Place That Far'' is the second studio album by American country music artist Sara Evans. It was released in October 1998 via RCA Records Nashville. The album's first single, "Cryin' Game", peaked at number 56 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot C ...

," sings harmony vocals on "Better Off." "Revival" was previously recorded under the title "A Little Revival" by one of its co-writers,

Radney Foster Radney Muckleroy Foster (born July 20, 1959) is an American country music singer-songwriter, musician and music producer. Initially a songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee, Foster made his recording debut as part of the Foster & Lloyd duo, recordi ...

A Real Fine Place to Start "A Real Fine Place to Start" is a song co-written and originally recorded by American country music artist Radney Foster, taken from his fifth studio album '' Another Way to Go'' (2002). Foster wrote the track with George Ducas and produced it as w ...

"), on his 2009 album, ''Revival''. The album's title track, "

Slow Me Down ''Slow Me Down'' is the seventh studio album by American country music artist Sara Evans, released in 2014 by RCA Nashville. Content Evans co-wrote three of the album's eleven tracks and co-produced the record with Mark Bright, whom she previou ...

," was released as the album's lead-off single on September 23, 2013. It debuted at #57 on the U.S. ''Billboard''

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since October 20, 2012, although the magazine also retrospectively recognizes the Hot Country Songs charts from January 20, 1990, through October 13, 2012, ...

chart for the week of September 14, 2013, and ultimately reached a peak of number 17 in April 2014. The second single was announced to be "Can't Stop Loving You" with a release date of July 21, 2014. For unknown reasons however, the release was pushed back to August 25, 2014 and then later cancelled completely with "Put My Heart Down" announced as the next single instead. "Put My Heart Down" was released on September 29, 2014. It debuted at number 60 on the U.S. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

chart for the week of November 8, 2014, and ultimately reached a peak of number 57, only spending four weeks on the chart. Evans appeared on ABC's ''

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

'' to perform a duet version of "Put My Heart Down" with

Will Chase Frank William Chase (born September 12, 1970) is an American actor, director, and singer, best known for his work on Broadway and for his role as country superstar Luke Wheeler on ABC's ''Nashville''. Early life and education Chase was born i ...

(who plays Luke Wheeler on the show) on October 29, 2014.

Critical reception

''Slow Me Down'' garnered acclaim from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the album has a Metascore of 87, indicating "universal acclaim". Erik Ernst of the ''

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper and also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely read. It was purchased by the G ...

'' gave a positive review, saying that the album "is a mostly joyful affair that finds the singer even more confident as she explores the many sides of love" on which "She's been there and has come out singing better than ever on the other side." At ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'', Sarah Rodman gave a positive review, stating that the release is better than her predecessor, and she says "the tracks that stand out have a fresh appeal." Jon Caramanica of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' gave a positive review, and writes that Evans "robust and sweet voice" are what sets the album apart because "She sings with power, grace and dignity.". At ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'',

Brian Mansfield Brian Mansfield (born September 24, 1963) is an American writer and journalist. Early life and education Mansfield grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated from David Lipscomb High School. In 1984, Mansfield received a bachelor's degre ...

rated the album three out of four stars, stating that "In songs spanning soaring pop and stone country, Evans recounts all the ways to walk away, though she'd rather be convinced to stay", and the likes of "

and

Isaac Slade Isaac Edward Slade (born May 26, 1981) is an American singer and musician; the former lead vocalist, main songwriter, pianist and co-founder of Colorado-based rock band The Fray. Education Slade attended the University of Colorado Denver, wher ...

beckon her back."

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

rated the album four stars out of five, writing that "fans hoping that Evans will return to country music will be disappointed, but Slow Me Down is something that is rare in 2014: an unapologetic, big-scale adult pop album, constructed with grace and care." At ''

The Oakland Press ''The Oakland Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Oakland County, Michigan with headquarters in Troy. It is owned by 21st Century Media, with which its parent company merged in 2013 after filing for bankruptcy. The local historical society ...

'',

Gary Graff Gary Graff (born 1960) is an American music journalist and author. Biography Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Graff attended Taylor Allderdice High School where he wrote for school newspaper ''The Taylor Allderdice Foreword''. He recei ...

rated the album three stars out of four, saying that Evans is "in fine voice and solid country-pop crossover form" on which "Evans isn’t about to be slowed down any time soon." Chuck Dauphin of ''

'' rated the album a 91-out-of-100, stating that the album is spectacular making it hard to select a few highlight tracks. At ''

Country Weekly ''Country Weekly'' (known as ''Nash Country Weekly'' from 2015–16) was an American magazine about country music. It was in circulation between April 1994 and May 2016. The publisher, Cumulus Media, now maintains the site Nash Country Daily. O ...

'', Tammy Ragusa graded the album an A, writing that "she has found what works best for her on the contemporary side and front-loads the project with those songs." At Got Country Online, Donna Block rated the album a perfect five stars, and according to her "Every single beat is felt, head to toe. It’s quite a feat to balance ever-changing feelings in a song, let alone throughout an album", and it shows just how Evans "maintains a vocal equilibrium from song to song" on the release. Dan MacIntosh of Roughstock rated the album three stars out of five, writing that Evans plays around with many styles on the album, but advises her "a beautiful, natural singing voice is a terrible thing to waste."

Commercial performance

''Slow Me Down'' debuted at number nine on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200, and at number two on the U.S. ''Billboard''

Top Country Albums Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales ...

chart selling 27,000 copies in its first week of release. The album has sold 87,000 copies in the US as of August 2014.

Track listing

Personnel

– lead vocals, backing vocals * Jimmy Nichols – keyboards,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

* Charlie Judge – synthesizers *

Kenny Greenberg Kenneth S. Greenberg is an American guitarist, songwriter, producer, and session musician. He is known for bringing a rock-and-roll sensibility to Nashville recording sessions. Biography Greenberg was born in Cleveland, Ohio but attended junio ...

– electric guitars * Jerry McPherson – electric guitars *

Ilya Toshinsky Bering Strait was a Russian country music band, whose style was sometimes called "redgrass". In 2003, the band was nominated for a Grammy Award and appeared on the TV show ''60 Minutes''. The group disbanded in 2006. The lineup on their first al ...

– acoustic guitars,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally a gui ...

Aubrey Haynie Aubrey E. Haynie (born March 27, 1974) is an American bluegrass musician who plays the fiddle and mandolin. In his career, he has recorded three studio albums for the Sugar Hill Records label, all three of which contained mostly songs that he w ...

–

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

Jimmie Lee Sloas Jimmie Lee Sloas is an American session musician, producer, and songwriter, who plays bass. History Jimmie Lee Sloas, born in Ashland, Kentucky, grew up in Fairborn, Ohio and Isonville, Kentucky. His father, Dave, was a member of the popular ...

– bass *

Chris McHugh Chris McHugh (born 1964) is an American musician from Camden, NJ. He began his career as the drummer of Christian rock band White Heart from 1986 to 1989. McHugh toured and played as a session drummer with artists such as Aaron Neville, Pe ...

– drums *

Greg Morrow Greg Morrow is an American drummer, percussionist, session musician, mixing engineer, and vocalist. Biography Morrow was born in Ripley, Tennessee and raised in Memphis. At age 11, Morrow and his band performed on a local TV show, and he par ...

– drums *

Eric Darken Eric A. Darken is an American percussionist, composer, and programmer. Biography Drawing inspiration from his grandfather, a band leader. Darken began playing drums at age 12, and played timpani and mallets in high school. Darken attended ...

– percussion * Shane Stevens –

whistle A whistle is a musical instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It is a type of Fipple, fipple flute, and may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a s ...

* Bob Bailey – backing vocals * Perry Coleman – backing vocals * Vicki Hampton – backing vocals * Jenifer Wrinkle – backing vocals *

Gavin Degraw Gavin Shane DeGraw (born February 4, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter. DeGraw rose to fame with his song "I Don't Want to Be" from his debut album ''Chariot (album), Chariot'' (2003); the song became the main theme song for The WB/The CW, ...

– lead vocals on "Not Over You" *

– lead vocals on "Can't Stop Loving You" *

– harmony vocals on "Better Off"

Production

* Mark Bright – producer * Sara Evans – producer * Derek Bason – recording, digital editing * Ben Fowler – recording, mixing, digital editing * Todd Tidwell – recording * Chris Ashburn – recording assistant * Chris Small – recording assistant * Matt Rausch – additional recording * Trey Keller – digital editing * Brian David Willis – digital editing * Adam Ayan – mastering * Mike "Frog" Griffith – production coordinator * Kristin Wines – production assistant * Robert Ascroft – photography * Kaelin Evans – hair, make-up, styling * Alex Stone – glam assistant * The Collective Nashville – management Studios * Recorded at Blackbird Studio and Starstruck Studios (Nashville, Tennessee). * Additional recording at The House (Nashville, Tennessee). * Mixed at Hillywood Studios (Nashville, Tennessee). * Mastered at Gateway Mastering (Portland, Maine).

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Singles

References

{{Authority control 2014 albums Sara Evans albums RCA Records albums Albums produced by Mark Bright (record producer)