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Marc Broussard - S.O.S.: Save Our Soul - Vanguard

Louisiana rocker Marc Broussard has always had more than a little soul in his rock mix so it makes a lot of sense for him to release an album of mostly R&B and soul music covers. There is one original new song on the album, which is the follow up to Broussard's 2004 breakthrough debut Carencro. While Brousard can certainly rock like the best of them, he is clearly and convincingly at home covering songs like The Staple Singers' "Respect Yourself," "Yes We Can Can" written by Allen Toussaint, Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues," "Love and Happiness" by Al Green, and the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell duet that he sings with Toby Lightman, "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You."

He pulls out a terrific version of Blood Sweat & Tears "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know," and he sheds some new musical light on Bobby Womack's "Harry Hippie," a brave choice of a song to cover. While Broussard gives most of these songs a straight ahead reading, he nails them with an uplifting intensity and solid performance that reinforces why these songs are such classics in the first place. The extra special thing about these songs is that he'll be performing them live, at this year's Xponential Music Festival on Sunday July 22.

Written by Bruce Warren