About 10 years ago, when I was working in radio in Santa Barbara, I was able to host a private listener concert with Michelle Branch. That's here and I in the photo. From that day on, I have been a huge fan. Michelle is a tremendous talent, and is still releasing great music today.
Today's featured song is called "I'm A Man"
Here's some info from Warner Records:
New album 'The Trouble with Fever' available September 16
Branch kicks off her The Trouble with Fever Tour on September 12 in Nashville with dates in New York and Los Angeles
Grammy Award-winning and multi-Platinum selling singer-songwriter, Michelle Branch has announced her new album The Trouble with Fever, due for release on September 16 on Audio Eagle/Nonesuch Records/Warner Records. The album's first single, "I'm A Man," is available now.
"I wrote the chorus of 'I’m A Man' long before the verses. It started as an empathetic view towards men struggling to find a new way to navigate in a post- “Me Too” world of toxic masculinity," says Branch. "Having a son made me think of how men are taught to be from a young age and the pressures to provide and succeed and this sort of burden to be seen as macho. But you can’t tell that story with just one side of the coin because as I was trying to paint a sympathetic view it just seemed completely minuscule and ridiculous in comparison to the struggles that women have been dealing with, really, since Eve bit the apple. Why are nearly all mass shooters male? Why do I need my husband’s written permission in 2022 to get my tubes tied? Why do American women have fewer reproductive rights than our grandmothers? Why don’t we get paid as much as men? Why do I have to teach my daughters not to walk alone at night? And so on and so on. Yet we carry on with grit and grace like we always have because we have no other choice."
"The album began during the 2020 lockdown, while Patrick and I were here at home in Nashville. I didn’t realize I was making a record at first — it was more just for our own sanity, getting time together to play music and screw around in the studio."
"I wrote the chorus of 'I’m A Man' long before the verses. It started as an empathetic view towards men struggling to find a new way to navigate in a post- “Me Too” world of toxic masculinity," says Branch. "Having a son made me think of how men are taught to be from a young age and the pressures to provide and succeed and this sort of burden to be seen as macho. But you can’t tell that story with just one side of the coin because as I was trying to paint a sympathetic view it just seemed completely minuscule and ridiculous in comparison to the struggles that women have been dealing with, really, since Eve bit the apple. Why are nearly all mass shooters male? Why do I need my husband’s written permission in 2022 to get my tubes tied? Why do American women have fewer reproductive rights than our grandmothers? Why don’t we get paid as much as men? Why do I have to teach my daughters not to walk alone at night? And so on and so on. Yet we carry on with grit and grace like we always have because we have no other choice."
Created during the pandemic lockdown, The Trouble with Fever, co-produced with her husband, Patrick Carney (The Black Keys), is Branch's fourth solo album and follows her critically acclaimed 2017 album, Hopeless Romantic. The time at home gave Branch the opportunity to stretch herself creatively. She says:
"The album began during the 2020 lockdown, while Patrick and I were here at home in Nashville. I didn’t realize I was making a record at first — it was more just for our own sanity, getting time together to play music and screw around in the studio."
Michelle and I in Santa Barbara