CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: 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."

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: 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.”

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Michelle’s life has changed a lot since then, and so has her music.