Worth the wait

When the release date for Marc Broussard’s new self-titled CD was pushed back from last fall all the way to this June, he admits he was originally not a happy camper.
“Quite frankly, I was pretty furious,” Broussard said in a recent phone interview. “It’s not easy to stay off of the road for as long as I did and maintain not only the same fans, but maintain the standard of living, because when I’m not on the road, I’m not making any money…And I’ve got four kids, so it’s very important for me to make money. I know it’s not always pretty to put it that way, but this is what I do for a living.”
Now he’s seeing several reasons why having to wait to release the “Marc Broussard” CD might work to his advantage.
Part of his anger dissipated early on when executives at his label, Atlantic Records, explained why they wanted to delay the CD.
“They were actually kind of priming the well, if you will, because they loved what they heard,” Broussard said. “Then I felt much better about the situation and the timeline that they had. Basically they just said ‘You know, we want to make sure this thing gets the right look. We want to make sure everybody in the building is going to be focused on it when it does come out.’”
The extra time also gave Broussard and his producer, Jamie Kenney, time to tweak the songs and improve the CD.
“Basically at that point you realize you’ve still got some money left in the budget, and obviously you’ve got the time, so why not try to make it the best that we can?” Broussard said. “We were still tweaking this record up until January of this year.”
And what might work out as the biggest advantage to the June 2011 release date is the music market itself. Soul is enjoying a resurgence, first with artists like Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings and Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears that play music that is directly rooted in ‘60s soul, but more significantly, 2011 is shaping up as a big year for another singer songwriter – Adele – whose soul-inflected sound isn’t that different from Broussard’s.
“I’ve definitely always felt like we were just behind the curve. It (a breakthrough) was just around the corner,” Broussard said. “I came onto the scene shortly after John Mayer made a huge splash and Jason Mraz was making his way up the charts. And then I just always felt like it was just on the outside, just out of reach. But with this album and with what’s going on, especially with Adele, I’m hoping we can ride this wave. I really do feel like this album is really strong, and I’m fully confident that it has the ability to reach the masses.”
This isn’t the first time Broussard has entertained thoughts of attaining stardom. His first major label CD, “Carencro” (named after his home town in Louisiana), was given a major promotional push, and produced a couple of minor hit singles, “Home” and “Where You Are” – enough to have Broussard thinking a mainstream breakthrough could be around the corner.
Instead, Broussard ended up leaving Island after a shake-up in the company’s top management, and signed with Vanguard Records to release a CD of soul cover songs, “Save Our Soul,” in 2007 before moving to Atlantic for a pair of 2008 releases, the EP, “Must Be The Water,” followed by a full-length CD, “Keep Coming Back.”
Now comes the self-titled CD, which is arguably Broussard’s best effort to date. As always, soul is a strong ingredient, on what otherwise is a fairly diverse record. “Only Everything (Appletree)” is a brisk but tuneful rocker, while “Eye On The Prize” mixes funk and gritty rock. “Cruel” has a bit of a Motown bounce in its poppy sound, while “Lucky” evokes a little ‘70s Philly soul. On “Bleeding Heart,” some offbeat percussion and a simple descending melody hook are used to great effect. And songs like “Let It All Out” and “Our Big Mistake” give the new CD the kind of soul-laced ballads that Broussard has always done well.
Broussard hopes he’ll be able to play most, if not all, of the songs from the “Marc Broussard” CD on tour this summer. But how fully – and how soon — fans embrace to the new CD will also factor into the live shows going forward.
“From the feedback that I’ve gotten, it definitely takes a few listens,” Broussard said of the CD. “You might get people who like it on first listen. But to fall in love with it, obviously with anything it takes a few listens. So we’ll see how the audience reacts.
“But if I had to guess, I’d like to play the entire record,” he said.