ROCHESTER HILLS — For singer-songwriter Michelle Branch and pop stars Goo Goo Dolls, their tour with newbies Parachute is a reunion of sorts.

"My old guitar player (Brad Fernquist), who I used to be on the road with, is in the Goo Goo Dolls' band now," Branch told The Flint Journal.

"I haven't seen him in so long. It's going to be a good reunion. He was in my first band touring 'The Spirit Room' and in the band for my second record. I literally haven't seen him in seven years, or eight years. It's crazy."

The tour featuring Branch and Goo Goo Dolls is a long time in the making, according to the Goo's bassist Robby Takac.

"It's funny," he said. "We played with Michelle so much over the years that I thought we had toured with her before. When someone suggested her, I was like, 'Oh yeah, we toured with her before.' 'No we haven't.' We just did a bunch of one-offs with her over the years. She's really nice and got a pretty cool thing going on. Parachute's got some stuff happening on the charts right now. It's going to be an exciting summer."

Known for her hits "Everywhere" and "Are You Happy Now," Branch is releasing in September her first solo album in seven years, "West Coast Time." During the jaunt, which comes to Meadow Brook Music Festival on Sunday, Branch, who also fronts the country act The Wreckers, will perform a 45-minute set.

"Forty-five minutes for me equals about nine songs," she said. "Seven of those are old singles, like I'm playing 'Everywhere,' 'All You Wanted,' 'Breathe,' "Are You Happy Now,' (The Wreckers') 'Leave the Pieces' and the Santana song ('The Game of Love'). That gives me six songs. If I play another song of mine, 'Goodbye to You,' that's seven. I'll probably be able to play two or three new songs at the most. I'm going to be going back out in the fall. I'll be able to have a longer set then. It's going to be fun."

Parachute, on the other hand, has 30 minutes to warm up the crowd with hits such as "She is Love" and "Something to Believe In," which is climbing the charts. The latter song appears on "The Way It Was," the follow up to Parachute's "Losing Sleep," which was released in May 2009.

"It's going to be fun," said vocalist/guitarist Will Anderson. "We're the first band of three. It's always kind of a battle to win people over in the beginning. It's fun. It's a challenge to us to get people to pay attention. It's a fun show.

"In outdoor amphitheaters, it's the most distracting place ever. So it's always an even bigger battle when it's outdoors to get people to watch. We love it. We love being the first and getting to warm people up. Should be a good time. We'll play all the hits, all the high-energy ones, and then we run."

Fans at the show will get the chance to meet Goo Goo Dolls, according to Takac, whose band has started to record new material.

"We do a canned good drive with an organization called U.S.A. Harvest at all our shows," he said. "We've been working with them for well over a decade now. All we do is ask people to bring nonperishable food goods. The street team's amazing. They have bins out front. All you do is drop stuff in them. We make sure that they get to food pantries and shelters in the community they're collected in.

“Whoever brings the most, ends up coming back stage and meeting the band and everything."