Sarah Johns spent her childhood in Pollard, Kentucky, where regular participation in the local church choir occupied much of her time. Her parents prohibited secular music, prompting her to secretly acquire and play cassettes by Patsy Cline and Tammy Wynette that ultimately shaped her approach to writing songs. Encouraged by the church soundman, she started booking performances beyond the sanctuary, cut a demo, and pitched it throughout Nashville without success. While enrolled at the University of Kentucky she sang several nights a week at a nearby restaurant, an engagement that produced an unexpected introduction to Toby Keith’s manager, who urged her to relocate to Nashville. She acted on the suggestion within weeks, abandoning her studies and settling in the city, where she took a position cleaning tour buses. Roughly a year later the same connection yielded an invitation to join Keith’s road show, during which she appeared onstage as a guest vocalist on two numbers. Her performance of “The One in the Middle” drew considerable notice, leading to a contract with Sony’s BNA imprint; the label issued her first full-length project, Big Love in a Small Town, in August 2007.
