Keep Coming Back
Marc Broussard
Listen to new single "Evil
Things"
“My fans have been
asking me for years,” said Marc Broussard, his
road-hewn voice unmistakable over the phone. “Every
time I come out with a record, they’re like,
‘It’s good but it doesn’t do the live
show justice.’ With Keep Coming Back, I feel that
we’ve finally delivered an album that does exactly
that.”Marking his debut release on Atlantic Records,
this set of original tunes does more than that. Recorded in
just 11 days at Nashville’s historic Ocean Way
Studios, Keep Coming Back confirms Broussard’s
position as an artist with a unique gift of channeling the
multiple spirits of classic R&B and soul into
contemporary terms.
That gift has been a matter of common knowledge since 2002,
when Broussard released his debut album, Momentary Setback,
which he recorded and released independently at age 20. Nor
was it a secret before then, going back to those lucky
witnesses who heard him belt “Johnny B. Goode”
onstage at age 5 while sitting in with his father’s
band. Pretty much throughout his life, Broussard has been
tapped as a talent to watch.
Even so, Keep Coming Back is the pivotal album of
Broussard’s rocketing career. Why? Begin, the artist
advises, with the musicians; buttressed by Music City
session veterans Tim Akers on keys and Gary Burnette on
guitar, all the players are members of Broussard’s
road band, seasoned by the same experiences that have
shaped him as an artist and performer.
“My road band and my studio band are one and the same
with a few select additions,” Broussard says.
“I’ve always recorded with them. No producer
I’ve ever worked with would ever have a problem with
them, because they’re just that good. Plus,
they’re not only the best musicians I’ve ever
worked with but also some of my dearest friends in the
world.”
That connection between all participants is essential on
Keep Coming Back – and that, in turn, lends that much
more weight behind Broussard’s decision to play a
greater role working with co-producers Justin Tocket and
Calvin Turner. Their partnership began with an agreement
that they would take this project beyond anything
he’d recorded before, in terms of making it a greater
priority to avoid painting a glossy studio picture and
instead do what Broussard and his band do every night
onstage: tell the truth.
“But what you hear on Keep Coming Back is actually
what we played in real time,” Broussard continues.
“The musicians just play, and you can tell on the
tape that we were really having a good time out there.
That’s another thing: We tracked it all to 2”
analog tape because analog is pleasing to the ear, and it
gives you a quality that digital recording can’t
duplicate.”
Everyone was so jazzed at these sessions that eight of the
album’s dozen tracks were first takes. The vibe in
the studio was more like a gig than a session. Each part
– those meaty B-3 textures on “Hard
Knocks,” for instance, or that sweet guitar fill at
the end of the first verse on “Another Night
Alone” – was played in the moment. It had to
be, as Broussard explains.
“None of these tunes were rehearsed,” he
reveals. “I’d demoed most of them, whether with
acoustic guitar, a drum loop with keyboards and vocals, or
whatever. I’d put it up on iTunes, everybody would
listen and write a chart, and then they’d get back to
the studio and play. And we had a ball. We had the
Nashville String Machine on a couple of cuts and a
seven-piece horn section, with [saxophonist] Jeff Coffin as
our point man – and they were all coming into the
control room even to listen to the tracks they didn’t
play on!”
The road to this point has been longer than one would
expect from an artist as young as Broussard. Yet already he
has toured with giants – Maroon 5, Dave Matthews
Band, Willie Nelson, O.A.R. and Bonnie Raitt, among others.
He has honed his writing chops through collaborations with
some of the top song craftsmen in the business. He has won
ovations at South-By-Southwest, Bonnaroo, the New Orleans
Jazz and Heritage Festival, as well as at countless
theaters around the country and on the court during
halftime at the 2008 NBA All-Star Game. And he’s
hooked up with some outstanding duet partners, including
two noteworthy guests on Keep Coming Back: LeAnn Rimes,
whose country-meets-swamp-blues turn on “When
It’s Good” returns the compliment Broussard
paid as co-writer and vocal partner on “Nothing
Wrong,” from her 2007 album, and pop/rock sensation
Sara Bareilles (who has opened several Broussard tours) on
the powerful ballad “Why Should She Wait.”
His philanthropic cred is strong too, through donating all
proceeds from the sale of his Bootleg to Benefit the
Victims of Hurricane Katrina, undertaking a month-long tour
of U.S. military installations in September 2007, building
homes with Habitat for Humanity and donating his service as
spokesperson for Louisiana’s United Way of Acadiana
– all of which contributed to Hard Rock
International’s decision in 2007 to present Broussard
with its “Love All, Serve All” Award in
recognition of his multifaceted generosities.
All of that, the spiritual as well as the musical,
contributes to Broussard’s emergence as a more
complex, seasoned yet emotionally vital artist on Keep
Coming Back. And his depth in American musical tradition
confirms that as a member of the Atlantic roster, he has
come home to a place that can nurture his continued growth
for years to come. The process began, in fact, a few years
ago, when the late Ahmet Ertegun first heard a young
Broussard perform with Solomon Burke during a tribute to
Wilson Pickett at a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame dinner
– and promptly offered him a spot at the upcoming
Montreux Jazz Festival.
“Keep Coming Back is me writing what I want to write
at this moment in time,” Broussard says. “And
I’m very content to be able to do this at Atlantic
Records, where the tradition for real music is so strong. I
do wish Ahmet was still alive; I know he and I would have
gotten along really well. But I also know Atlantic is the
right place to be and the right time for Keep Coming
Back.”
“Keep Coming Back “( + 5 bonus tracks) in
stores soon !
Marc special guest bij Paul Carrack
Paul Carrack + 7 piece band
April 12th
Rotterdam - Watt special guest: Marc
Broussard
April 13th Amsterdam - Paradiso special
guest: Marc Broussard
Our other new stuff! -->
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