S.O.S.: Save Our Soul
MARC BROUSSARD
Listen to the album
preview
Watch the video Love And
Happiness
Blue-eyed
soul music has got a new crown prince...and he's on a
crusade.
"I want to take what was beautiful and right about
old-school soul and make it alive again," says Marc
Broussard, whose vibrant, upbeat new album S.O.S.: Save Our
Soul is being released on Go!
Entertainment on July 27th
"Soul music grew out of the church, out of gospel, but
somewhere along the way it lost its heart. I want to give
that heart - the good vibes, the happiness, the love - back
to the music and back to the people, whether it's a new
generation who've never heard what genuine soul sounds like
or listeners who grew up on it."
On S.O.S.: Save Our Soul the youthful vocal dynamo from
Carencro, Louisiana, masterfully breathes fire and passion
into classic songs many listeners his age haven't even
heard. Broussard plumbed the vaults of historic labels like
Motown and Stax to create 11 performances that are
sweltering and incendiary - and true. Marc and the band
were adamant in their desire to do justice to the songs
they chose by recreating their original sounds and
arrangements as closely as possible.
"I wanted songs that had a positive spirit," he explains,
"because there's too much negativity in this world. Years
ago I made a promise to myself and to my family that I
would always make music that comes from a positive and
honest space."
So he selected powerful chapters from the soul bible
originally recorded by Al Green ("Love and Happiness,")
Stevie Wonder ("You Met Your Match"), Otis Redding ("I've
Been Loving You Too Long"), the Staple Singers ("Respect
Yourself"), Blood Sweat & Tears and Donnie Hathaway ("I
Love You More Than You'll Ever Know"), Marvin Gaye &
Tammi Terrell ("If I Can Build My Whole World Around You,"
here a duet sung with fellow R&B torchbearer Toby
Lightman), Bobby Womack ("Harry Hippie"), Rance Allen ("Let
the Music Get Down in Your Soul") and other members of
R&B royalty.
"Yes We Can, Can" a hit for the Pointer Sisters, is
especially dear to Broussard. It was written by the great
New Orleans songwriter Allen Toussaint and, like
Broussard's blues infused 2005 live disc Bootleg to Benefit
the Victims of Hurricane Katrina, its message of bootstraps
positivism goes out to the people of that storm ravaged
city. In 2004, Marc released his breakthrough CD Carencro -
a full-blooded distillation of the blues, soul, Cajun
music, rock and swamp pop of his native state channeled by
his flair for smart contemporary songwriting.
Broussard's own "Come in From the Cold," S.O.S.: Save Our
Soul's lone original number, fits seamlessly into the
disc's distinguished set list, with its deliciously fat
low-end, deep groove, church-bell guitar chords and the
25-year-old's elegant, intimate phrasing. Like all of
S.O.S.: Save Our Soul, it brings a new-school sensibility
to an old-school style.
Broussard and his band blended the seamless energy and
earthy edge they've perfected on the road alone, selling
out thousand capacity rooms and on major tours with Maroon
5, the Dave Matthews Band, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and
Gavin DeGraw, to name a few, with a profound respect for
the music's roots. They also straddled past and present
recording technology, cutting tracks live to analog tape in
Nashville's Ground Star Studio with producers Calvin Turner
(Broussard's bassist and Music Director) and Justin Tocket
(a longtime co writer and collaborator), then recording
only a handful of overdubs and mixing on computers.
"There's no digital beat doctors or pitch correctors on
this," Broussard proudly states. "We played this music like
we owned it - because we did."
Broussard was born into a musical family, so his
"ownership" goes back to his days as a boy hearing his
father, Louisiana Hall of Fame guitarist Ted Broussard,
(member of the legendary Gulf Coast blue eyed soul band The
Boogie Kings) tear through soul nuggets with bands around
suburban Carencro. And Marc was singing like the style's
founders by the time he was in his teens.
"Years before I made my first album" - 2002's surprisingly
mature Momentary Setback - "my uncle told me I needed to
form my own music by using all of my influences along the
way and combining them with my own perspective on life.
'Then,' he said, 'you'll have a great package to call your
own.' I think I achieved that with Carencro. Now I've been
touring behind that album nearly three years, and I want to
share a new message. Not just that real soul music still
has a place in our lives, but that we need to have more
social consciousness. I don't want to lecture anybody about
that. I want them to feel it through the positive vibes of
this music."
Our other new stuff! -->
Featured
artists on Go! Entertainment: Bananarama • Jimmy
Barnes • Black • Blacknuss • Marc Broussard
• Paul Carrack • The Family Stand • Stephen
Fearing • Warren G • The Golden Dogs • Hall
& Oates • Heaven 17 • Het Kaf • James
Kakande • Joel Kroeker • Jerry Lee Lewis •
Colin Linden • Mousse T • Jango • Manfred
Mann • Bruce Cockburn • Robert Palmer •
Runrig • Roachford • Blackie & TRK •
Marillion • Kenny Loggins • Chirs Pierce •
Ronnie Spector • Stephen Simmonds • Raphael
Saadiq • Truth Hurts • William Topley •
Amaryllis Temmerman • The Waterboys • Tom Wilson
• The Wrens • Tol & Tol • The Zombies
