What happened to her?

I think there were 3 factors: she got married, she tried to do a side country music project called The Wreckers, and she (like Vanessa Carlton) was ahead of her time. When Michelle Branch hit, she was kind of an anti-Britney, anti-Christina performer, in that she was a singer/songwriter that actually played her own music. Sadly, that was not what was popular or wanted by the masses at that time. If she had come out around the same time that Taylor's first album dropped, she very well could have been as popular as Taylor. (on a side note, I also find Michelle to be hotter than Taylor).

She took a break as a solo artist in the mid-2000s. She was in a female country-music duo called "The Wreckers." I used to see her on the Country Music channel way back in 2005-2006. Some of their music was OK: they did a song called "Leave the Pieces" that went #1 in the country music charts. They were nominated for a Grammy

After she moved on from The Wreckers around 2007-2008 though, that's when she got lost:

The word is that she actually had 2-3 cancelled albums in the period from 2007-2017. There was an album called "Everything comes and goes" (~2010). And there was another album called "West Coast Time" that never got officially released. Word is that there was a country album / EP mixed in between too ... none of them got officially released, though you can find unofficial released on Youtube, I think .... the story, basically, is that there were issues with the label. Her two singles from this era - "Sooner or Later" (2009) and "Loud Music" (2011) didn't do so well, so the record label decided to freeze everything, keeping Branch out of music for a long time. The albums were done, and they had all the promotional photos and artwork finished. But Warner Records didn't want to go forward

In 2017 and 2022, she finally returned and released a few solo albums that were done with the help of her husband, one of the members of "The Black Keys." The songs accordingly sound a lot like The Black Keys music, not like her early-2000s music.

Hinsight 20-20, she probably shouldn't have paused her solo career to do the Wreckers. That's when people started to forget about her. She joined the Wreckers because she's close friends with the other girl in the group

just seeing her name and face on here today brings a flood of memories for me. her song with santana was a big deal for me and a friend of mine 20 years ago, and we kinda bonded around that song.

yeah, she makes me think of the early 2000s and everything going on then. the glory days prior to social media and streaming and all these other 'advancements' which basically tore down our cohesion and attention spans.


i also had a hella crush on her. yummy lady.