The Wreckers: No Longer Standing Still
By Bob Doerschuk
© 2007 CMA Close Up News Service / Country Music Association, Inc.
The studios of CMT seemed like an island of tranquility on this late afternoon in Nashville. Here, with lights down low, with exposed brick walls and Oriental carpet encouraging an intimate coffeehouse ambience, The Wreckers - Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp perched on stools and harmonized, for maybe the thousandth time, on the chorus of "My, Oh My."
The crew, working for CMT's "Studio 330 Sessions" program featured on http://www.cmt.com/, captured the weave of their voices, the smiles that flashed between them, the crisp rhythm from Branch's mandolin as it locked into husband Teddy Landau's bass line. The feel was fresh, as if they'd just gotten to know the tune yesterday. And as the last notes rang into silence and the cameras dimmed the picture to black, Branch eased slowly onto the floor and stomped her tingling right foot, muttering, "Come on! Wake up!"
That was more or less the message that Branch and Harp delivered to the Country Music industry in May 2006 when, as The Wreckers, they unleashed their debut, Stand Still, Look Pretty. Its first single, "Leave the Pieces," topped the R&R and Billboard Country charts; album sales quickly shot past Gold level and are now nearly Platinum. In the months to come they would join the Rascal Flatts tour, make innumerable TV appearances, earn CMA Awards and Grammy nominations as Duo of the Year and open through the summer of '07 for Keith Urban.
None of this seemed possible when they'd decided, back in 2004, to put the act together - not just because the odds are long for any performers who strive for success. Their situation was more complicated than that: Harp had always hoped to make herself heard as an artist. And Branch already had, as a precocious singer/songwriter whose first album, The Spirit Room, recorded when she was just 16, established her as a bona fide pop/rock phenomenon.
The question was whether this would prove a liability in the eyes of audiences who have seen more than one rocker try to cross that divide toward Country credibility. Yet this, they insist, wasn't on their minds when they decided to combine their talents.
"It's hard to get across how few expectations we had," Branch said, moments after wrapping up the CMT taping. "Sure, we knew that people from Country radio and Country Music might judge us a certain way because of ." and here she made finger-wiggle air quotes . "'my sordid past'. Truthfully, we would have been happy just to have someone other than our parents buy the record. But to have everybody open their arms and welcome us the way they have has been mind-blowing for both of us."
Harp's challenge was different; she'd always been a Country singer at heart. "The most gratifying thing is that I've been able to stick to my gut, listen to my initial feelings and sing this music with my best friend," she said. "In fact, I could have signed a deal to make a pop record, but that's never what I really wanted."
The paradox is that neither girl defined The Wreckers by genre; their approach was to do the music they wanted to do and let others worry about what to call it. That applied as well to all the participants on this album, including John Leventhal, who produced all but three of its tracks. From his seat behind the console, the Stand Still, Look Pretty sessions weren't that different than Branch's Platinum-selling Hotel Paper, which he'd produced during her rock/pop incarnation.
"It was sort of seamless," Leventhal explained. "Both albums felt much the same to me. The new one did have more of a roots element because they wanted to bring in fiddles, mandolins, dobros and all that stuff. But even with that language, we never thought in terms of categories, so the music just became what it was."
Maverick Records, not a haven for Country acts, was skeptical about this approach at first. Now, with the impact The Wreckers have made, and their shift from Maverick to Warner Bros. Nashville, the coast seems clear for their next album. Of course, the price of creative freedom is paid often in the currency of expectations, which means that even with no one, in Branch's words, "breathing down our backs," plenty of people will be anticipating another blockbuster.
They'd like the studio sessions to be in Nashville, Harp's home for the past three years and, more recently, Branch's and Landau's. They moved here late last year, trading the five bedroom home they'd bought a year before in Calabasas, Calif., near Malibu, for a place far closer to Music Row.
"I didn't want to raise our daughter [Owen Isabelle, born in August 2003] in Los Angeles," she said. "My husband is an L.A. native and he wanted out too. The pace of life is so different here: We get to be home on average Monday through Wednesday or Thursday and then tour Thursday through Sunday, so it's a good balance of playing shows on weekends and taking out the trash at the beginning of the week. It's more about my life and less about my work, which is such a joy."
Leventhal remains the first choice for producer. Though he works mainly out of New York, he is no stranger to Nashville. According to Harp, his touch, transplanted to this community, is key to making the magic happen once more.
"My favorite tracks on the first album were his," she said. "Not only did we love them, but I think we made so much headway in this town because they're a little different from what you hear on every other record."
"Well, I can't really take credit for their commercial accomplishments, because I didn't do the singles," Leventhal said, referring to John Shanks' work on "Leave the Pieces" and Paul Worley's on "My, Oh My." "I respect producers who can do that. I'm not slighting commercial music at all; I like having hits as much as the next person. But that's not my strength. My strength is, 'How can we make this emotionally compelling and artistically substantial?' I have a feeling that's not what makes the girls tick anyway. They're really creative, and I would hate to choke that off right at the beginning and go, 'Hey, we need four more hits.'"
"Country Music is one of the last artist-friendly formats; it still revolves around making music," Branch observed. "People were much more guarded and competitive in pop radio, where I came from. The other day, for example, we walked into this studio to do liners, and there's Little Big Town, there's Sugarland, there's Miranda Lambert, and we've built friendships with these artists. I never had that in pop music."
"For Country artists who do well at the beginning of their career, the fans stick with them through the years," Harp, who recently got engaged to bandmate Jason Mowery, added. "Look at George Strait and Reba McEntire: not many people outside of Country Music have careers like theirs. That loyalty is so amazing. That kind of artist/fan relationship has always appealed to me. I want people to know who I am. I'm not this fake, glamorous star. I'm just me . a big dork."
"That works for both of us," Branch chimed in, collapsing with her friend in the kind of laughter one expects on the rise toward another wild ride including a new album scheduled for release Nov. 13.
On the Web: http://www.thewreckers.com/
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The Wreckers; Warner Bros. Records; Photographer: Frank Ockenfels |
The Wreckers; Warner Bros. Records; Photographer: Nick Spanos |
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