Marc Broussard - Home
*** (out of four)
I still turn on regular old VH1 every now and then, during the three-hour sunrise window when they actually play music videos. Most of them are pure crap, of course, and that's kind of the point - VH1 is supposed to make you feel old and button-down and just kind of like you're getting music in a forcefed, mechanical way. A few of the most sanitized Top 40 hits the kids like and a lot of slow songs for the old folks.
That's why it's such a pleasant surprise to happen upon quality, unassuming grown-folks music like this leadoff track from Louisiana soul singer Marc Broussard's album Carencro (named after his hometown). I'd never heard of Broussard until 6:15 a.m. yesterday morning - a quick search of rollingstone.com turned up no reviews at all, and other sites seem to posture Broussard more as a country artist than a rock one.
Sure, "Home" is Southern-fried, down-home, grassroots shit, but it has less twang than soul. Effortless, unassuming soul that conjures up old blues singers and a certain dude who used to sit on the dock of the bay and waste time. Even though Broussard is a slightly chunky, blue-eyed white boy you'd expect to see playing eighteen holes with Uncle Kracker.
Broussard takes us on a bus tour through the South - he sits, guitar in hand, halfway back in the charter bus while passengers bob their heads and the bus heads deeper into Louisiana. (There's a lot of traffic heading the other way, for some reason the video never delves into.) When he finally hops off the bus, Broussard leads a front porch jam session complete with washboard zydeco, and he rocks an underground wood-walled juke joint.
Timing-wise, the insistent, emotional singalong hook "take me home" seems more poignant than ever, given that the dude who's singing it just saw most of his home state get demolished in our country's worst-in-history national disaster. But even if I'd heard this before the Katrina crisis, there would be no denying "Home" is the kind of song that makes me stand up and take notice, regardless of genre. I definitely look forward to hearing more from Marc Broussard.
I still turn on regular old VH1 every now and then, during the three-hour sunrise window when they actually play music videos. Most of them are pure crap, of course, and that's kind of the point - VH1 is supposed to make you feel old and button-down and just kind of like you're getting music in a forcefed, mechanical way. A few of the most sanitized Top 40 hits the kids like and a lot of slow songs for the old folks.
That's why it's such a pleasant surprise to happen upon quality, unassuming grown-folks music like this leadoff track from Louisiana soul singer Marc Broussard's album Carencro (named after his hometown). I'd never heard of Broussard until 6:15 a.m. yesterday morning - a quick search of rollingstone.com turned up no reviews at all, and other sites seem to posture Broussard more as a country artist than a rock one.
Sure, "Home" is Southern-fried, down-home, grassroots shit, but it has less twang than soul. Effortless, unassuming soul that conjures up old blues singers and a certain dude who used to sit on the dock of the bay and waste time. Even though Broussard is a slightly chunky, blue-eyed white boy you'd expect to see playing eighteen holes with Uncle Kracker.
Broussard takes us on a bus tour through the South - he sits, guitar in hand, halfway back in the charter bus while passengers bob their heads and the bus heads deeper into Louisiana. (There's a lot of traffic heading the other way, for some reason the video never delves into.) When he finally hops off the bus, Broussard leads a front porch jam session complete with washboard zydeco, and he rocks an underground wood-walled juke joint.
Timing-wise, the insistent, emotional singalong hook "take me home" seems more poignant than ever, given that the dude who's singing it just saw most of his home state get demolished in our country's worst-in-history national disaster. But even if I'd heard this before the Katrina crisis, there would be no denying "Home" is the kind of song that makes me stand up and take notice, regardless of genre. I definitely look forward to hearing more from Marc Broussard.
posted by daytime at 5:38 AM
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