If home is where the heart is, then soulful singer Marc Broussard has good reasons for living in Carencro, Louisiana. It’s where he grew up. It’s where his folks are. It’s where he resides with his wife and four children. In fact, they live on the street he grew up on. And you can’t help but hear the sounds of Louisiana in his new album, Easy To Love. It’s raw, unapologetic, inviting, consoling. The Country Note caught up with Broussard following a successful September visit in Nashville for AmericanaFest. Here is just a little of what we learned about the easy going, bluesy rocker.
Life on the Road. . . . .
MB: We spend 7 or 8 months on the road. I’ve been touring about 100-120 shows a year for the last 15 years. Most of those shows have been with a band backing me up headlining clubs and small theatres. We’ve played tons of festivals but the lions share of work we do is in small theatres these days.
The Difference in Outdoors Festivals and Small Theatres. . .
MB: It’s fun to be outside but there’s a part of me that feels like rock and roll doesn’t belong in the sunshine. It should be played when it’s dark out. Yet the joy of being able to step in front of 20,000 people at a New Orleans Jazz Festival is unrivaled—it’s a hell of an experience to step in front of that many people and do what I do.
The New Album. . .
MB: Easy to Love. This one and my last album have both been independent projects I’ve put out myself. I hope I can make music that can be the soundtrack in someone’s life-a song for all seasons.
Mercy, Mercy, Me and Stand By You (The Covers). . . .
MB: There is actually a third cover—a song called “Baton Rouge”-an old Frankie Miller song. The selection process was different for each. “Baton Rouge” was an old song I wanted to bring back from the edge of obscurity and introduce to fans. I can relate to it quite a bit-it was soothing to tackle that recording. “Stand By You” is a song I’ve always loved and always had this idea to take it and funk it up a little and make it dirty. We thought we might be able to do a fresh approach=it’s been a while since that song has been around. “ Mercy, Mercy Me” shines and resonates today in the political climate we are currently in. It’s not berating. It’s not picking a side either—just asking for a little help, a little mercy. Sometimes we forget to remember there are actually human beings struggling and tend to talk about human beings as statistics. I wanted to bring some humanity back to discussion.
How an Album is Made . . .
MB: I’ve never bought into the concept album—I haven’t attempted it I should say. I generally tend to write from a place of sincerity and knowledge—tend to write things I know. These songs are just a collection of things I’ve gathered in an interest in the last few years since the last album. And they’re just topics I wanted to bring to the table without a tremendous amount of coherence between topics from song to song. I tend to link them sonically through the production process.
The Writing Process. . . .
MB: The process started out not as a record writing process. I was just going to get some writing done and maybe record some stuff to get some TV and film placement. We were on the west coast last summer and had some time off. We picked up an air BNB with me and the guys in my band and my producer, Jim McGorman, and wrote like the dickens. We wrote seven songs in two days and I felt good about the material. We went in and searched for ways to complete the album at that point and the option to pull off some covers was presented to me. And then I dug back through the catalogues and pulled out two songs-one of which I had previously released—it was a hidden track on a record of mine 13 years ago. It’s a song called “Gavin’s Song”—one of the more requested songs at live shows. I recut it as a piano ballad and there was another song I had written years ago and attempted to record a number of times and could never pull it off the right way. It’s called “Send Me A Sign”. I also treated it as a piano ballad and I couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out.
The Writers. . .
MB: I’ve written with probably several dozen writers over the years. I enjoy co-writing quite a bit-guys like Radney Foster, Dave Barnes, Chris Stapleton. I have had the pleasure of writing with some of the best writers I think that exist in my lifetime. I’m going to continue pushing to work with various writers over the course of my career.
What’s Next?
MB: We’ve got shows booked throughout the rest of the year. You can check out www.marcbroussard.com to find out when and where. I’ll have another record coming out next spring or early summer-it’s a lullaby album for charity. We put out one last September and partnered with a charity called City of Refugee. We managed to raise about $10,000 for them last year. This one is actually a children’s book with a free record when you buy the book. I wrote the book already. I have a friend that’s doing illustration. Our charity partner is a St. Jude affiliate being constructed in Baton Rouge right now.
The Concept of the Book. . .
MB: This is the first in what I hope will be a series. It’s intended to raise awareness among young people about diseases and conditions. The first one is about cerebral palsy because a lot of people don’t understand it very well. There are quite a few misconceptions regarding folks that have CP. It’s a condition that locks a person into their own body but they have full cognitive functions, just serious muscular problems. Often you see folks in a wheelchair and think they may be mentally handicapped but it’s the exact opposite. They are some of the most loving and intelligent people I know.
Book tour?
MB: We’ll see when we get there. I haven’t decided if I’m going to self publish this thing or bring in a publisher.
Americana Fest and Nashville. . .
MB: I haven’t done AmericanaFest in the past but I have an amazing relationship with City Winery. And boy was it a humbling inclusion to be on the stage after Colin Hay from Men at Work and Joan Osborne and before Robert Cray. I don’t even know what to say but it was just an honor to be there. Truly. We get to Nashville about two to three times a year-we’re doing two shows at City Winery for New Year’s Eve!
Influences and Touring Partners. . .
MB: Tori Amos, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Carrack. Bonnie is an incredible human being-a doll of a human being. She showed me I need to always pay attention to the people who open for me, which I haven’t always done. She is so grateful and gracious with her time and it has made a huge impact. I did some shows with Paul Carrack across the pond in Europe and Holland. Paul was in three massive bands in his career ad traveling in a van and here I am, opening for him in clubs. So I asked him, ‘what’s the story?’ He said, ‘Mark, I’m working harder now than I’ve never worked. I’m CEO of my own company. Everybody works for me. I make more money than I’ve ever made and I’m having more fun than I’ve ever had. I learned that it doesn’t require selling 25,000 tickets a night to enjoy yourself and make a good living.
Memorable fan stories. . . .
MB: I get them daily almost. I fella told me on IG just today that he had struggled for a long portion of his life in many different ways and that he came upon my music and it caused him to reevaluate his life. He came across my song, ‘Evil Things’ and it caused him to pause and drop to his knees and beg the Lord for forgiveness. He asked God into his heart and since then, he’s turned his life around. It’s one of the hundreds of stories every year that tell me I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. It gives me purpose. Another fella told me a story whose girlfriend wheels him into the back door of an LA club called The Mint. He had ended up in a wheelchair after some fellow sucker punched him outside of a club in LA. He was in a coma for 30 days and the doctors swore he was never gonna recover. He had no cognitive function whatsoever. On Day 30, his girlfriend brought in a stereo and put on my song, ‘Home.’ Fella starts tapping and mouthing words-first cognitive function in 30 days. I don’t think that music healed him by itself in that way mind you. I don’t think music has magic to it but I think it makes powerful connections with people. It emulates life in a way because it forces you to emote and confront feelings you may not otherwise feel. And so does life. Art imitates life in that way, especially in regard to music.
We couldn’t agree more Marc.
For more information about Marc Broussard, visit his website www.marcbroussard.com and follow him on socials @MarcBroussard.