Josh Rouse

Josh Rouse is an American singer-songwriter associated with alternative country, country, folk, folk rock and indie pop. He is born in 1972 and is from Oshkosh, United States. His work combines roots music, melodic folk and acoustic songwriting, with a catalogue that moves between country-influenced arrangements, soft rock, jazz, ballad forms and more stripped-back material.

Early life and start in music

Rouse spends part of his childhood in different places across the American Midwest because of his father’s military career. He later attends Austin Peay State University and settles in Tennessee, where he meets local musicians and begins recording. After moving to Nashville, he befriends Kurt Wagner, the frontman of Lambchop.

Recording career

Rouse signs to Slow River, a Rykodisc subsidiary, and releases his debut album Dressed Up Like Nebraska in 1998. The album receives critical acclaim, and his first records establish his reputation for thoughtful, melodic songwriting. In 1999, he and Kurt Wagner issue the collaborative EP Chester.

His second solo album, Home, follows the next spring, and Under the Cold Blue Stars appears in 2002. In 2003 he works with producer Brad Jones on 1972, an album shaped as a tribute to the soft rock of his youth and as a broader development of his sound.

Nashville, Spain and later releases

Before his next album, Rouse’s marriage ends and he moves from Nashville to Spain. The 2004 album Nashville reflects that change and includes rock, jazz and ballad elements; it is also presented as a farewell to both the city and his marriage. The album is selected as one of Amazon.com’s Top 100 Editor’s Picks of 2005, at number 80.

Subtitulo follows in 2006 and shows the influence of his move to Spain, with a sound that moves closer to early Paul Simon. In 2007 he supports John Mayer on a series of Winter Tour dates and releases a joint EP with his girlfriend Paz Suay under the name She’s Spanish, I’m American. Later that year he releases Country Mouse City House, his seventh LP, which shifts towards a fuller, more instrumental approach and divides opinion among critics and fans.

Rouse continues touring internationally and releases El Turista in 2010 and The Happiness Waltz in 2013.