Carencro

1	Home
2	Rocksteady
3	The Beauty of Who You Are
4	Save Me
5	Where You Are
6	Come Around
7	Lonely Night in Georgia
8	Saturday
9	The Wanderer
10	Hope For Me Yet
11	Let Me Leave

Barnes & Noble

At first listen, it's clear that this 22-year-old Louisiana native possesses a baritone that packs a preternaturally grizzled wallop, but a little digging reveals a depth that makes him more than just another pretty voice. Broussard lets his Cajun roots show here and there -- notably on the brassy "Saturday" -- but he's not about to be pigeonholed in terms of geography or sound. On the surging "Rocksteady," he conjures up images of early Bob Seger -- before the Motor City singer veered toward the middle of the road. He's every bit as comfortable shifting into ballad gear, as evidenced by "The Beauty in Who You Are," a gently rolling piece that has the same sort of Everyman angst as, say, Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis." Carencro -- named after the Bayou town in which Broussard spent his formative years -- is best when as little as possible comes between the singer and his listeners. And while a few of the disc's tracks are hampered by overzealous arrangements, stripped-down songs like the yearning "Home" and the ragged-but-right "Hope for Me Yet" deliver the sort of down-home taste that's hard to resist. David McGee

All Music Guide

Make no mistake about it, Marc Broussard can sing. With a husky baritone that sounds like some Louisiana version of David Ruffin and an upward range that suggests Al Green or Eddie Kendricks, Broussard's soulful phrasing carries a kind of joyous and yet world-weary wisdom that belies his age. The lead track here, "Home" (the album is named after Broussard's hometown of Carencro, LA), is immediately stunning. A huge and atmospheric swampy Motown stomp, "Home" sounds like Otis Redding from some alternate universe -- one in which he doesn't die in a plane crash -- singing swamp pop with all the funk of a Memphis Stax groove and all the ghostly alligator voodoo of Dr. John. An explosively effective track, "Home" is a hard act to follow, and the rest of this album seems to trail in its wake. "Save Me" sounds like it could be a winning single for the neo-MTV generation, and Broussard's surprisingly joyous vocal (you can tell he takes glee in singing, a trait, again, that recalls Al Green) masks a somewhat codependent lyric, while "Lonely Night in Georgia" sounds like John Hiatt trying to channel Ray Charles. There is a journeyman's feel to some of the songs, but Broussard's soulful vocals always find a meaningful corner to work from in just about everything here, and one can't help but feel this guy has a monster album in him just around the corner. Carencro isn't a masterpiece (although "Home" certainly is), but it is a solid, professional, and undeniably soulful outing, and anyone who can sing like this kid is definitely going to set the world reeling back on its heels eventually. Steve Leggett