Interview: Marc Broussard Talks Blues For Your Soul

By Martine Ehrenclou

Acclaimed vocalist/songwriter and king of Bayou Soul, Marc Broussard recently released his new album S.O.S 4: Blues For Your Soul, out on Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping the Blues Alive Records. Spotlighting his long-running involvement in charitable endeavors, Broussard’s album is a stunning collection of soul and blues classics that burn right to the center of the human experience. With Broussard’s expressive take on each one, plus one original, the album is a soul-stirring journey into the music he’s always admired.

With special guests Joe Bonamassa, Josh Smith, Roddie Romero, JJ Grey, Eric Krasno, and Calvin Turner, the album was created to raise funds to help our country’s underprivileged youth. S.O.S. 4: Blues For The Soul delivers a double punch: great music for a great cause. Produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, a portion of the proceeds of S.O.S 4: Blues For Your Soul go to Bonamassa’s Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation to support youth rehabilitation through music. This includes a partnership with Guitars Over Guns, a Miami-based nonprofit that offers students from the most vulnerable communities a powerful combination of music education and mentorship.

Broussard’s ongoing series of benefit albums (S.O.S) support a different cause for each album. He released multiple albums with major labels over the last ten years before returning to his independent roots with several acclaimed original recordings and charitable cover albums via his S.O.S. Foundation (Save our Soul).

“S.O.S 4: Blues For Your Soul is a great album,” I said. “I really enjoyed it. Could you tell me why a blues album now?”

Marc said, “Well, it’s the project behind the album. The mission behind the album is really the determinant factor here. I wanted to do a project to raise money for causes around incarceration, and the blues just seemed to fit that motif better than any other genre.”

“Your charity organization drove the album, rather than the other way around?” I asked.

Marc said, “That’s exactly right. That’s what drives all of these projects. For instance, the last project was a lullaby album, which we used to raise money for our St. Jude affiliate hospital. The project before that was a homeless women and children’s shelter, and it was a very soul-oriented album. We always go in with a very strong intention around the charitable side of things.”

“How did you decide to work with Joe Bonamassa on this?”

“I reached out to my buddy Calvin Turner to talk to him about the project and kind of pick his brain about it. And he said that he had been doing some work with Joe over the last few years, and that I should reach out, that it sounded like the kind of project Joe would jump on. I did just that. I hit him up on a text message and said, ‘Hey, I’d love to work together on this project.’ And before I knew it, I had Joe Bonamassa as my producer and his record label putting out the record.”

‘Before I knew it, I had Joe Bonamassa as my producer’

Broussard also shared that he was involved in Guitars Over Guns, “a Miami based organization that tries to stem street violence by encouraging kids to get involved in music.”

I asked, “You mentioned incarceration and also helping kids stay off the streets through music. Can you tell me a little bit about why that’s a passion for you?”

“I know what music has done for me in my life,” Broussard said. “I grew up in a fairly lower-middle class existence and had my fair share of friends that had plenty of run-ins with street violence, and plenty of run-ins with the police. And I’ve got friends that have done some federal time as well. And I know intimately the issues surrounding incarceration. Some of the folks that are often overlooked in these situations, as well, are our children.”

Broussard continued. “It was just a mission that aligned with the goals that we had. I’m never interested in trying to start new organizations to go after these issues, because there are so many already doing great work on the ground. The goal behind the S.O.S. records, as a whole, is to identify those organizations doing fantastic work on the ground, and then seed them with money for the existence of this project. As long as I keep having new fans find this music and go buy these records, we’ll be able to continue to fund these organizations.”

Considering the breadth of Broussard’s involvement in charitable work, I asked him if giving back has been a life-long mission.

“I would say that I’ve always had a moral code that would lend itself to philanthropy, or standing up for somebody that might be bullied or whatever you might have there.” Broussard continued, “But it wasn’t until I went independent from the major labels, about 10 years ago, that I really got serious about building philanthropy into what I do.”

His intrinsic drive to help others makes Marc all the more interesting as an artist. He sings not unlike a blend of Ray Charles and Donny Hathaway and and has appeared on major TV shows including The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, CBS Saturday Morning, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival/AXS-TV, and many more. His songs have been placed in numerous films and T.V. shows.

I asked, “Can you tell me a bit more about your organization Save Our Soul?”

Marc explained. “After my debut album on Island Def Jam, I made a sophomore album that the CEO, at the time, did not like. He decided that he wasn’t going to release it. I couldn’t get booked for shows because we didn’t have a new album out. I desperately needed something. I asked to be let go from the label. They said, ‘No problem, but you can’t have that album you just made.’ I was in a real tight spot.

‘I was in a tight spot’

“The solution was to go and make a covers album,” Marc said. “It would be fast and easy, and I could introduce my younger fans to a bunch of old soul music that had kind of defined my upbringing. And that S.O.S. album saved me, basically saved my career in many ways. It got me overseas for the first time and just allowed me to get back on the road.”

After leaving Island Def Jam, Vanguard Atlantic, and then again Vanguard, Broussard was independent and suddenly he had a revenue stream coming his way that his family had never seen and never had the opportunity to lean on for their own needs. He said, “I figured this money that used to keep the lights on in office buildings in New York City and Los Angeles could better be spent keeping the lights on for people that actually need to keep their lights on. I convinced my managers, very reluctantly, to come on board with this charity album. They were adamant that I was too poor to do that kind of thing, but I knew that it was the right call and I knew that things would work out.”

‘They were adamant that I was too poor to do that kind of thing’

Marc continued. “We’ve managed to raise tens of thousands of dollars for a couple different projects, to date. And I have no plans of stopping these albums anytime soon. It really is a fun project to do. It allows us, as a band, to play songs and record songs that we all know and love. It allows my fans to see some of the foundational songs in my life. I’m sure at some point, there’ll be a Country S.O.S., and a Gospel S.O.S., and a whole host of other projects.

Shifting back to his new album S.O.S 4: Blues For Your Soul, I asked him how he chose the cover songs as each is different and distinct.

“With every one of these albums, I basically asked the guys in the band, the producer, the engineer, my manager,” he said. “I’ll ask everybody to put together playlists of stuff that they’d like to hear on these albums. And then, we kind of cross-reference those playlists to make sure that if there’s something that’s on everybody’s list, it has a very high likelihood of going on.”

“That’s What Love Will Make You Do”

 
Broussard also shared about the recording process and how organic it was in the studio. He said, “So you talk about how we’re going to approach that stuff. But ultimately, these guys were so good that I could just float in and out anytime I wanted to. If there was a formless kind of a thing going on, like on the Howlin’ Wolf song, I can just dip out and dip right back in, and they were always in the right spot. These are some of the best players on planet earth.”

In an effort to illicit details about the collaborative process with him and Bonamassa and Smith in the recording studio, I asked about his input and if he ever expressed his preference for arrangements for some of the cover songs. He shared, “I think it’s pretty self-evident for everybody in the room, we all have a lot of respect for these tunes. It’s a pretty organic process. The results speak for themselves. When you hire such an incredible band, there’s really not much discussion that needs to go on. People pick up quickly on what you’re trying to put down.”

Curious about his performances with his father Ted Broussard, a noted Louisiana musician, I asked if he was still touring with him. The videos of the two of them performing together are quite special.

Marc said, “Yeah, my dad will come out for about a half dozen or more shows a year. It’s the best, I love playing with him. The crowd absolutely loves him, and he loves them.’

For more information on Marc Broussard see HERE