The September MMMM, “Growth Potential,” challenged solvers to find a pop-rock singer. The 19×19 mirror-symmetric grid contains an unusual, large candelabra-shaped central figure. What’s going on?

The puzzle’s title and the top middle grid entry, TREES (clued as [Things with limbs]), provide a hint that this figure is supposed to represent a tree. As illustrated in the image on the left, the limbs each need to be filled in with letters for the corresponding Across entries to make sense. For instance, 45-Across [“False ___” (the Weeknd song)] and 46-Across [“Love Her ___” (single from 5-Down)] are not ALAR and ADLY, respectively, but ALARM and MADLY. Putting the letters M-I-C-H-E-L-L-E in each limb, from left to right, makes the entries make sense.

Some solvers saw “Michelle” and guessed Paul McCartney, because of the Beatles’ song. But solving the meta requires one more step.

These limbs can be thought of as tree branches, pointing to Grammy winner Michelle Branch, this month’s meta answer.

Meta Song:

When it came time to record this month’s MMMM cover, the Michelle Branch hit “Are You Happy Now?,” I immediately thought of my friend Cara Onofrio, who performs under the name happysometimes. Enjoy!

Selected Solver Comments:

pxofferson   Amazing construction!

adamrosenfield   I hadn’t heard of her, but googling for “Michelle pop-rock singer” popped her out as the top result.

Sam   My first time getting one right after March!

misunderstruck   I feel like a good sign of a well-constructed meta is that even though I have never heard of this singer, I was able to get it right from the puzzle and confirm with a quick Internet search.

SPY   Love the mechanism.

Girubato   Fun one! Just discovered these puzzles and I really enjoy them

Alternative Music Clues:

Pete Mitchell suggests cluing HOLLY as [Cricket’s head?], PEE as [“Why Does It Hurt When I ___?” (Frank Zappa song)], and RAN as [“I ___” (Flock of Seagulls hit)].

EasyNow suggests cluing MICHIGAN as [U.S. state that “seems like a dream to me now” in Simon and Garfunkel’s “America”] and ERNIE as [“Sixteen Tons” singer Tennessee ___ Ford].

SF suggests cluing HOLLY as [1965 Burl Ives hit “A ___ Jolly Christmas”], while pbfrommn suggests cluing it as [___ Dunn, country musician who had eight top ten singles] and TREES as [“Fake Plastic ___”, 1995 Radiohead single].

Evan suggests cluing GENIE as [“Prince Ali” singer in “Aladdin”], RAN as [“And I ___, I ___ so far away / I just ___, I ___ all night and day” (lyric from “I ___” by A Flock of Seagulls)], and SOSA as [Grammy-winning Argentine folk singer Mercedes].

Groaners:

Streroto   Amazing construction. Really branching out!

gpagano   What can I say, her song was Everywhere in the 2000s.

Zoltar   I’ll go out on a limb and predict that there will be bushels of solvers this week. 

Mikey G   I wonder if she ever performed any “roots”-rock!

Jennybean   Fun one—once I figured out where you’d decided to Leave the Pieces I needed!

AWise   so clever, what a TREEt.

Redhead64   I solved this one on a tablet, though solving it on “Hotel Paper” would’ve been more fitting.

TomB   It was a Game of Love to solve this one!

Totals this month:

428 correct, 22 incorrect

Rating: 4.33 out of 5 stars

Difficulty: 2.56 out of 5

Monthly mug winner: Justin Weinbaum from Pittsburgh, PA

Thanks to Matt Gaffney for blogging the puzzle at Crossword Fiend, where you can rate the puzzle (thanks!) and/or leave a comment.

Thanks to Tamara Brenner for the graphic.

Thanks for playing and see you next month!