With the recent wave of pop artists such as Sheryl Crow, Jewel and more recently, Jessica Simpson going country this year, it was in 2005 that a then 22-year-old singer/songwriter named Michelle Branch abandoned her successful pop career to form the Grammy-nominated country duo The Wreckers with her friend Jessica Harp. It was a risky move on Branch’s part, considering the fact that going country means alienating her pop fan base.

For two and a half years, Branch toured with Harp as The Wreckers, opening for acts such as Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts, rarely playing her own solo material. Branch felt so comfortable within the genre that she moved her family from Los Angeles to Nashville where she currently lives, even setting up her own bakery there called The Sugar Bar.

Fans of Branch’s earlier material wondered when and if they would ever get to hear her do pop music again. The girl that was once all over MTV, teaching Carson Daly how to play guitar on TRL, and showing up at the VMAs to accept her moon man was now covering Patsy Cline for a tribute album and showing up to the CMAs in cowboy boots. It seemed as though Branch has completely left her pop career behind.

Then in mid-2007, news broke out that The Wreckers were disbanding and both members will pursue their solo careers after only one studio album, their debut Stand Still, Look Pretty. Fans were eager to hear whether Branch will stay within the country genre which she says she feels happy with or revert back to mainstream pop music; the genre in which she has achieved multi-platinum status with hits such as “Everywhere,” “All You Wanted,” “Are You Happy Now?” and “Breathe” among others.

In the past, Branch has collaborated twice with legendary guitarist Carlos Santana, first with the hit song off his 2002 album Shaman with “The Game of Love,” which Branch still continues to play live to this day with her own backing band. In 2005, along with Harp, she once again teamed up with Santana for the less successful “I’m Feeling You.”

She has recently released a song titled “Together,” which was written for the Sisterhood of Traveling Pants 2 soundtrack. The song is reminiscent of Branch’s early pop career, so distant from The Wreckers’ sound that it almost brings back the innocent somewhat-cheesy lyrics of songs from her debut The Spirit Room while keeping the maturity she showed in Hotel Paper. This, however, is not what fans should expect her third solo effort to sound like, as “Together” was written strictly for the movie soundtrack.

Everything Comes and Goes, Branch’s third album is slated for an early 2009 release. She has been playing both old and new songs live on tour, along with several songs from The Wreckers’ catalog. One song in particular is a lullaby written for her daughter Owen titled “Crazy Ride.”

Whether her new sound will continue to win over more country fans or gain back her older pop fans, there is no denying that many fans are ready to hear what she has up her sleeve and 2009 is too long of a wait.