After spending the summer opening for the Dixie Chicks, Michelle Branch [ tickets ] goes solo during a fall swing through North America.

Branch hits a mix of colleges, clubs and theaters during the run, which currently spans the month of October. Her itinerary also includes a Sept. 3 performance at a radio-station festival in Boston. Dubbed "Mixfest," that event will also feature performances by Tori Amos, Train, Jason Mraz, Dido, Barenaked Ladies, Duran Duran and Vertical Horizon.

Branch's fall outing is part of her ongoing support for her sophomore set, "Hotel Paper," which she released in June. The album is the follow-up to her breakthrough debut, "The Spirit Room," which has sold more than 2.5 million copies, according to a press release.

"Hotel Paper" features the single "Are You Happy Now?," about which Branch said in a statement, "Anyone who has been stomped on can relate." The album also includes the cut "Love Me Like That," a duet that features Sheryl Crow, with whom Branch once toured.

"It sounds too good to be true, but [producer] John [Shanks] and I had the song and felt that it needed another voice," Branch said. "We picked up the phone, called Sheryl, and she came down an hour later."

Now 20 years old, Branch hopes that people will focus more on her music than on her age; much of the media attention that she received after releasing "The Spirit Room" focused on the fact that she was, at that time, still in her teens.

"I never wanted to be the 'young female' artist," she said. "I always looked at myself simply as a 'female' artist. When I worked with Sheryl Crow and Carlos Santana, both said something to me that I will never forget--'You're the real deal.' And when artists of that caliber say things like that, it helps me to remain focused on the songs and not my age."