Description: This is
a VOA Special English General News Report.
See text below
Text:
Michelle Branch has been writing music since she was
14 years old. That was the same year she received a
guitar for her birthday. Her big break came a year
later when her best friend called with an urgent
request.
MICHELLE BRANCH: "She called me, said 'you have to
get down here and bring a tape or meet this guy
because he's going to be leaving soon.' [I] said,
well I can't get down there. She said, 'do you
have... just walk, ride your bike, anything.' My
neighbors had left their golf cart out in the
driveway with the key in it. And so I took the golf
cart and I went down and I was waiting as this guy
was leaving. I was like 'excuse me, mister, will you
listen to my tape?' And he was just horrified. But
he - on the long drive home back from Arizona to
L.A., he put it [the tape on] in the car and he
ended up calling me."
Maverick Records released her first compact disc,
"The Spirit Room," in 2001. The CD produced three
hit singles, including the Top 20 Hit "Everywhere."
A short time later, Michelle won a Grammy Award for
her work with Carlos Santana in the song "The Game
of Love." In 2005 she successfully made the move to
country music, teaming up with Jessica Harp as the
Wreckers.
Now Michelle has returned to pop music. But she
still sings about her country experience in her new
CD, "West Coast Time."
MICHELLE BRANCH: "I had a country band called The
Wreckers for a while and I moved to Nashville, and
it's, it's sort of a song about my time spent there
and how I always felt kind of a little bit different
because, you know, everyone had their southern
upbringing there and I was raised on the west coast
and had an upbringing of a little bit of country
music but a lot of rock and roll."
Michelle had established herself as a star with her
first two albums. So the big question was, "why do a
country album at all?"
MICHELLE BRANCH: "I grew up listening to older
country music -- Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash and
those greats. And I just always loved the
storytelling aspect and where the lyrics came from.
And so that was, that was something that I was
really drawn to and it just felt too special to turn
our back on."
Michelle's life has changed a lot since then, and so
has her music.
MICHELLE BRANCH: "The writing has changed a lot
because my last pop album was released almost eight
years ago and I'm married and a mother now and I
think a lot has changed. I've seen a lot of the
world so my perspective lyrically has changed a lot.
I think the songwriting is classic Michelle but
there is some definitely new modern sounds."
Michelle is a simple, yet creative young woman. One
example is her choice of tattoos.
MICHELLE BRANCH: "Well I thought because most people
get something really meaningful written in cursive
on their wrists and I thought from far away it just
looks like something meaningful, beautiful. And I
have a little bit of a goofy sense of humor so I
thought well it'd be funny if people ask me what it
is. But, yeah I had Kellie Pickler walk up to me and
she said 'oh, I love your tattoos! Look at mine.
Mine say, peace and love or hope and faith or
something.' And she goes 'what do yours say?' I said
... right and left... and it just was awkward."
When Michelle is not making music or performing, she
likes to use social media to communicate.
MICHELLE BRANCH: "I tweet, kind of - it's kind of a
problem. My daughter is like 'mom, are you on
Twitter again?' I really have a great relationship
with a lot of people on Twitter so it's a fun way to
request songs or you know, reach out."
Michelle says she is looking forward to hearing from
fans about her new CD and sharing her new sound and
ideas with people around the world. I'm Christopher
Cruise.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
