Posted on Fri, May. 26, 2006

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A chance to Branch out

Michelle Branch takes the wheel, teaming up with Jessica Harp

By MALCOLM MAYHEW

STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

FRANK OCKENFELS

Following in the paths of the Dixie Chicks, Fiona Apple and other contemporary female performers who signed with a record label, then tried to Liquid-Paper their names out, pop-rock singer Michelle Branch has been vocal about her frustrations with her label. Last year, comparing herself to a prostitute, she posted a rant on her Web site about how tired she was of succumbing to her record company's demands and how the label wouldn't let her do what she wanted, musically.

When her label finally loosened its grip, she immediately hooked up with longtime touring partner Jessica Harp, a Nashville-based singer. Together, as the Wreckers, they did a one-off country song for the soundtrack to the TV show One Tree Hill. The song, Good Kind, was so well-received and such a needed departure from formulaic pop-rock for Branch, that the two decided to cut an album together, and permanently form the Wreckers; they even played at South by Southwest in March.

They're definitely on to something. In some ways, however, their debut, Stand Still, Look Pretty (a reference to how Branch perceived herself at her record label), isn't much of a change for Branch. At their heart, these are still pop songs with bright melodies, clean arrangements and crisp vocals.

That's what Branch contributes. Harp, on the other hand, brings an appreciation of country music. Songs like Leave the Pieces and Way Back Home are doused in fiddle, steel guitar, acoustic guitar and other country-music touches and nuances. My, Oh My is a straightforward bluegrass song, for instance.

The results of Branch's sense of pop melody and Harp's country aesthetic fall somewhere between the Dixie Chicks' Home, Patty Griffin's Flaming Red and any of Sheryl Crow's records. But things definitely lean more toward the right of the country-pop hyphen.

There's an easygoing feel to these songs; nothing's too deep or serious. Even their attempts at covering disturbing subject matter -- as on a lyric like "He loves his whiskey, and his fist loved my face, so I buried that man; they won't find a trace" -- are outlined with a humorous attitude; at the end of that song, the two laugh.

Fans of Branch's more rock-oriented material will get something out of this: Rain and Lay Me Down are two Branch-dominated rockers that would easily have fit on either of her solo albums, 2001's The Spirit Room or '03's Hotel Paper. Here, they're the odd men out.

The rock songs give Stand Still the kind of country-rock variety that's not as annoyingly self-aware as Big & Rich or Keith Anderson's stuff -- and they're also proof that Branch hasn't totally betrayed the genre that started her career.

The Wreckers

Stand Still, Look Pretty

Warner

GRADE: B