![]() "I was like, 'Okay, mister!'" says Branch with a mock eye roll. When it broke, he said, she would become famous. Jewel had made the bracelet herself, he told her. Branch named it after this "ratty, beaded" thing given to her by Steve Poltz, she says, an indie guitarist and frequent Jewel collaborator whom she met backstage at a Lisa Loeb concert. At her shows, she sold a self-produced album, financed by her parents and later released by an indie label-a collection of lilting folk songs about love (or what a teenage girl imagined as love) called Broken Bracelet. She eventually convinced her parents to let her split her time between Los Angeles and Sedona and finished up high school through homeschooling. "Because they served alcohol, the minute I was done, I would have to leave the venue," she says. Soon, with the help of her parents, she was playing gigs-a mix of original music and Lisa Loeb, Sheryl Crow, and Fleetwood Mac covers-at local bars and restaurants around her hometown of Sedona, Arizona. But the past fourteen years were anything but fallow for Branch-and now, with a new label, a new life partner and musical collaborator in the Black Keys' Patrick Carney, and a new (and wildly different) album, Hopeless Romantic, she's back to reintroduce herself.īranch began writing and composing her own music at 14, after her parents bought her a guitar for her birthday. Even for fans who have the lyrics to her hits drilled into some layer of their subconscious, she was often still a product of early aughts nostalgia. In that time, Branch got married, had a child, separated from her husband, put out an album as part of a country music duo, and … largely disappeared. It's been 14 years since Branch released her last solo album. In between Britney Spears, the schoolgirl sexpot of pop, and the anti-Britney Avril Lavigne, with her Hot Topic-bought hostility, was Branch: the Everygirl. In record time, she staked a place in the musical landscape. With two platinum albums and a crop of wildly catchy singles- "Everywhere," "All You Wanted," and "Are You Happy Now"-she was the voice of every love-struck high-schooler in the country, and still a teenager herself. ![]() In 2003, Michelle Branch seemed to flash-freeze in our collective pop cultural memory as the girl in hip-hugging boot-cut jeans and a black tank top. Paste said of it, “Sprinkled with gorgeous, transparent and colorful synths, Hopeless Romantic casts Branch as a newly matured lover and songwriter and is indeed likely to succeed at satisfying diehards and welcoming in new devotees.Fourteen years after her last solo album, the "Everywhere" singer-songwriter is back with Hopeless Romantic, and ready to claim what major label execs wouldn't give her all those years ago: control. In 2017, Branch released her critically acclaimed fourth album, Hopeless Romantic (Verve), co-produced with her husband Patrick Carney (The Black Keys). The Gold-certified album spawned the hit single “Leave the Pieces,” which topped the Hot Country Songs chart for several weeks, and earned Branch her fourth Grammy nomination, as well as “My Oh My” and “Tennessee”. In 2006, Branch found success with Jessica Harp as modern-country duo The Wreckers, whose debut Stand Still, Look Pretty was praised by critics for breaking down barriers between pop and country. Certified Platinum in the US, and Gold in Australia, Canada and Japan, it spawned the hit single “Are You Happy Now?,” which was nominated for a Grammy for Best Female Rock Performance (she was also nominated for Best New Artist). 2 on the US Billboard album chart and was a top 10 hit around world. Her second album, 2003’s Hotel Paper, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, and was a major international hit. Branch won a Grammy Award for her 2002 collaboration with Carlos Santana, “The Game of Love,” which peaked at No. The album went on to sell three million copies worldwide, and was certified double-Platinum in the US, Platinum in Japan, Gold in Australia and Canada, and Silver in the UK, among others. In 2001, she released her highly acclaimed debut album, The Spirit Room, which featured the hit singles “Everywhere” (MTV Video Music Award Viewer's Choice winner), “All You Wanted” and “Goodbye to You”, and ushered in a new era of young women writing and performing their own songs. ![]() Branch was seventeen years old when she signed to Madonna’s Maverick Records.
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