Go To Where He’s From

Sure Josh Rouse lives in Spain now, but prior to departure he recorded Nashville, a lovely little record that is anything but typical of Tennessee music. Sweet and mellow, Rouse’s record won’t get the party started, but it will help waste away a Sunday morning without falling back asleep.Nashville isn’t all soft; “Winter in the Hamptons” and “Why Won’t You Tell Me What” both amp up the disc’s energy, mostly with rollicking piano and guitars. The addition of a Rhodes piano adds a unique flavor to every song on Nashville without feeling overused. The pedal steel does the same, and actually could have been put to use more frequently. But most important is the way all these elements combine so smoothly on the entire album, regardless of tempo.

The mellow songs are the highlights. “Saturday” is a simple love song about returning home to regular life and regular love that is missing from life on the road. There are no illusions of romance (such as dozens of roses and life-spanning proclamations). In fact Rouse promises the opposite: “I would swim across the ocean/I would lay down on a bed of nails/But I’ll spare you all the bullshit/I will spare you all the desperate details.” And he pretty much does just that.

Rouse closes his love note for Nashville with “Life,” a song so simple it would sound contrived were it not paired with beautifully slow paced guitar and Rouse’s perfect drawl of “That’s just life/So darling don’t cry.” Coming from this artist it actually sounds believable. Nashville really does work as an escape for those listeners who are able to retreat into it completely.