Marc Broussard

It’d be easy to pass Marc Broussard off as another young singer/songwriter riding the coattails of Dave Matthews and John Mayer. He’s young, good looking, armed with an acoustic guitar and full of sweet melodies. But the 22-year-old Louisiana native has something his aforementioned contemporaries don’t—pure soul.

“My dad exposed me to a lot of great music at an early age,” he says. “Looking back I realize [those records have] a lot to do with what I am doing now. I grew up in a home where I was exposed to black music—jazz, R&B—at a really early age. And the amalgamation of my Cajun/French upbringing, combined with a real respect for African-American music, blossomed into what I do now. Growing up, at home I was hearing Otis [Redding]. I was hearing Marvin [Gaye]. I was hearing Donnie Hathaway, and Earth Wind & Fire. I was also hearing Weather Report, Blood Sweat & Tears.”

A local manager heard Broussard’s smoky baritone in his Catholic church’s choir and asked him to be the opening act for a band he’d booked. Lafayette native Leah Simon, of the Los Angeles-based Alternative Radio Marketing Strategies, showed up a few minutes too late to catch his second solo gig in early 2002. Undaunted, Broussard stepped outside, sat down on the curb and sang three originals for Simon. Impressed by his vocal range and pitch, Simon formed Ripley Records in order to independently release his debut CD, Momentary Setback, and started shopping his wares to the major labels. For the next year-and-a-half she booked him on club tours and as an opening act for such established bands as O.A.R. and Maroon 5. Suddenly, Broussard was the toast of Tinseltown.

“I met DreamWorks. I met Capitol. I met Warner Brothers. I met everybody,” he says of the bidding war that took place among major-label players in the wake of his swelling success. He settled on Island Records, who’ll be releasing his follow-up to Setback later this year.

While Setback showcases an eclectic mix of styles, it’s Broussard’s stage presence—belting out his songs with the intensity of Springsteen, his shoulder and neck muscles bulging and taut, emotionally letting each note rise from deep in his gut—that made believers out of his swelling ranks of fans and his new label.

“They haven’t had an artist like me for a long time. Just a white boy singing soul music.”