Longing for time to ‘Stand Still’

BY the time she was 18, Michelle Branch was already topping the charts as a singer-songwriter. Now 23, Branch is gaining new audiences as part of the country duo the Wreckers.

She and musical partner Jessica Harp have been promoting their debut album, “Stand Still, Look Pretty,” for most of 2006. That means Branch, husband (and Wreckers bass player) Teddy Landau and year-old daughter Owen Isabelle have been on the road almost nonstop since February. So she admits getting a little homesick thinking about her favorite places in L.A.

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Pour it on

On Friday, if we have a baby-sitter, we usually try to go out to dinner. We just moved out to Calabasas. So if we have a lot of time, we’ll hop over onto PCH, drive down to Santa Monica to a place called Chez Jay, a hole-in-the-wall, sawdust-on-the-floor-type place. They have amazing steaks and a jukebox.

The only place that we really go out to see music or hang out, have drinks, is the Baked Potato in North Hollywood. A lot of friends of ours play there, and we know the owner. My husband kind of grew up playing there, and sometimes they let me bartend. I’m not too advanced because usually by then I’ve had a few drinks myself, but mostly it’s a beer crowd, so I don’t really get too challenged. I just have to know how to open a beer. I make killer margaritas though.

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Thrills and grills

We’re fortunate we have a swimming pool, so most of the early part of Saturday is spent doing laundry, taking a swim, hanging out. But if we’ve had a doozy of a night before, we like to chuck it all over the way into Los Feliz and eat at Yuca’s, ‘cause it’s the best hangover cure. It’s the best Mexican food in all of Los Angeles -- the most insane bean burritos, and their carne asada burritos and tacos are to die for.

Mostly we end up going over to friends and having a barbecue. We always let my friend’s husband man the grill. He’s actually the drummer for the band Lifehouse, and we like to tease him because he’s not that coordinated. One time he almost lost all of his facial hair because he left the grill on, and then he tried to light it. All of a sudden we hear this huge boom outside and we thought his eyebrows had been singed off, but he survived.

He usually does something kind of simple on the grill, and I usually end up making dessert. I make killer fruit pies and chocolate souffles, which everyone always begs me to make and I like to make because that means I get an excuse to eat it.

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A shore cure

Sometimes we go up to Cambria on Sundays. My husband’s mom has a getaway house there, and on the weekend we like to drive up, hang by the beach, and there are little antique junk shops everywhere. I have friends who live on Point Dume, so sometimes we sneak onto Paradise Cove through them.

I go shopping a lot on the weekends too, sometimes at Fred Segal in Santa Monica. If my friends aren’t doing anything, we’ll meet up there.

But mostly it’s hang-out-at-the-beach day. We like to drive around a lot. We go to Santa Barbara just for the day, just get out of the house. My husband likes to surf. I like to pass the sandwiches and sit on the beach and play in the sand with my daughter.

-- Steve Baltin