Song of the Day: 'Born to Fly'

As I am posting this, it is early in Day 6 of this road trip (the blog is about two days behind -- it takes a long time to upload all that video!). I knew when I planned this trip that it would get tough and I would get tired, and it is and I have. I decided before I even left Boston that I would designate a song that would be the one I played in the car at the start of every day to get me going. It would be high-energy and on a positive theme, to counteract any sadness or exhaustion I was feeling. The song I picked was Sara Evans' "Born to Fly."

My classic country and bluegrass-loving friends may scoff at this choice, but songs like this are the reason I think that songs, not albums or genres, are the point. I've felt this way for years, and certainly the entire music business is now trending this way. You can be bored by a genre and unmoved by an album, but point to one specific song and say, "hell yeah!". This is such a song for me.

I would actually call "Born to Fly" a pop song with a semi-twangy vocal delivery and some serious picking overlying the pop beat. "Born to Fly" was one of Sara Evans' first huge hits in the early 2000s, written by her with Marcus Hummun and the great Darrell Scott. One of the things I like most about it and chose it for my trip kickoff song is that it starts with a kick-ass drum solo done almost in marching band style. Then of course there are the virtuoso Jerry Douglas dobro riffs and Aubrey Haynie (I think) on fiddle. I knew without even looking it up that that was Jerry Douglas. No one else could play that many notes that fast on a dobro!

Sara Evans, "Born to Fly" (at last.fm)