Michelle Branch

Michelle Branch was singing from the age of three years old, and displayed such a passion for it that her parents enrolled her for lessons at the Northern Arizona University when she was eight. However, unlike most singers of her age, she was interested in creating her own music rather than singing anyone else's, so for her fourteenth birthday she received her first guitar, and composed “Fallen”, her very first song, in the first week of having it. From that moment on she was hooked, and dropped out of the last two years of high school in favour of home schooling so she could focus on her budding music career. By 1999 she was spreading her songs around the internet in any way she could, which included posting them on the Rolling Stone website in December of that year.

By chance, the tracks were heard by the pop-rock band Hanson, who were so impressed that they had her open for them during two gigs the following year. This boost in profile led to Branch releasing “Broken Bracelet”, her first, independently released album the same year. The record received so much attention that she signed a record deal with Maverick Records a year later, in 2001, and her second album “The Spirit Room” was released in August the same year. Thanks to the huge success of its singles “Everywhere”, “All You Wanted” and “Goodbye To You”, “The Spirit Room” would eventually be certified Double Platinum by the RIAA, selling over two million copies.

This mainstream success lead to her first Grammy award when she teamed up with Carlos Santana for the single “The Game Of Love”. To cap off this period of commercial dominance, her third album “Hotel Paper” was another Double Platinum certified hit, and ever since then, Branch has ridden out the following years doing whatever it is she wants to do, whether that's acting or forming the country duo The Wreckers with her friend and backing singer Jessica Harp. With a new EP of material released in 2010 called “Everything Comes And Goes” and a new record in the works, Michelle Branch is a true songwriter's songwriter. For that, she comes highly recommended.