The 24-year-old Marc Broussard is poised to bring his impossibly soulful music to the 9:30 Club this Thursday and Friday, opening up for G. Love and Special Sauce. The blend of his Bayou music and G. Love’s Philly-style grooves should provide a great atmosphere.
“He’s a great guy,” Broussard said about G. Love. “We’re having a lot of fun.”
Broussard is no stranger to 9:30 Club. In his professional career, he’s made several trips there. “It’s probably the best club I’ve played at,” said the Carencro, La., native.
Even long before he hit the road with his band, he was gigging out in D.C. As a youngster, he sang Gregorian chants in a church choir at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception at Catholic University.
It’s no surprise that Marc was making inroads in the music world as a child, what with his father Ted being a Louisiana Hall of Fame guitar legend and all. “We used to goof around in the house quite a bit,” he said. “I was always running up and down the Gulf Coast on weekends playing gigs with him.”
His single “Home” is as much a tribute to his father as it is an ode to his upbringing. “It’s a song that represents all that I am and all that I came from,” Broussard said. “It really captures the essence of what I put out, but you got to keep turning out something new.”
Indeed, every song on the album “Carencro” (named after his hometown), is something completely new, or at least different from the last track. There’s no shortage of funk, rock, R&B, blues and obviously soul. However, he humbly insists that it’s not “an intent thing,” saying “whatever comes out, comes out.”
Looking to the future, Broussard says that his next album, due out early 2007, will deliver even more 70s-style soul. How he can get even more soulful is truly a mystery.
Broussard’s major label debut, “Carencro,” was released in early 2004, and there hasn’t been a studio release since. However, he has been far from taking it easy. As a war-horse in terms of touring, he has been gigging quite a bit in post-Katrina Louisiana.
“I feel like my attitude towards Louisiana is the same as anybody who’s been there,” Broussard said. “I don’t know … it must be the water or something, but it’s the best place on Earth, and we’re going to do everything we can to rebuild it.”
He is certainly pulling his weight. Between the shows he has been playing to attract people to the area and the live bootleg he put together in October of last year to benefit the victims of Katrina, he’s become a poster boy for the rebuilding process. But his attitude is that when a place has that much influence on an artist and his music, he can’t give enough back.
This homebody has certainly put himself on the map with his eclectic blend of music tied together with pure, unadulterated soul, so 9:30 Club is going to be buzzing this weekend.
Marc Broussard will open for G. Love and the Special Sauce at the 9:30 Club on Thursday and Friday. Tickets for Friday are SOLD OUT but are available for Thursday and are $27.50.
