So, the very next night after seeing what might possibly be the best show of the year, we were back in Atlanta (Decatur, actually) to see our old friend Josh Rouse at Eddie's Attic.
We're not sure what to say about Josh Rouse in 2019. He was arguably our favorite, certainly one of our favorite, musicians back in 2003. Before we had heard him, we read a review of his LP 1972, written and performed by Rouse in the style of and as a tribute to the music of the year of his birth. We bought the CD and enjoyed it, and it had the added benefit of being one of the few CDs that both we and our girlfriend at the time could agree on, so we listened to it a lot.
At that time (2003), we were listening to a lot of what we would call chillwave today but back then was called chill-room or Zen lounge or Buddha Bar, plus jazz, ambient and German electronica. The girlfriend liked modern R&B, pop, and upbeat folk. In short, she hated our music and we hated hers. But we did find a couple of "common ground" records, and Rouse's 1972 was definitely among them.
Not only did Rouse absolutely nail the blue-eyed Philadelphia soul sound of the titular year, but the album also got us to first explore his earlier records, especially his debut Dressed Up Like Nebraska, and then later to follow him through subsequent albums Nashville (2005), Country Mouse City House (2007), and El Tourista (2010). A restless soul, each album was a sort of paean to wherever Rouse was living at that time, and together the recordings form a sort of musical travelogue or, more accurately, biography of the musician. The songs became earworms and nestled into our subconscious, and had enough funky backbeats and rhythm to make good music for driving in the car or background music for our domestic life.
So that was then. We still heard occasional new Rouse songs released with his subsequent albums, but as indie rock came to dominate our listening from 2005 to 2015, we didn't buy any more Josh Rouse LPs after 2010's El Tourista. Not that we didn't like his music anymore and not that the songs that we had heard didn't still have a special place in our heart, it's just that we had moved on to other vendors and other bands. But we still caught the occasional show when Rouse came through town and revisited those beloved tunes with a nostalgic pleasure.
On this tour, last night, Rouse was performing solo, just a singer and his guitar, and while he still managed to evoke the rhythms and the funk of his full-band performances, everything was a little more stark and rarefied. But hearing the old familiar songs once again, our friend still caused our mind to release veridinal doses of music-loving endorphins, and we enjoyed the mellow show, even if we never challenged our sequential system.
Rouse covered songs from throughout his career, mixing in newer material from his recent (2018) Love In the Modern Age with classics all the way back to Nebraska, and, happily for us, several songs off of 1972, including the titular song. Several songs led to spontaneous audience singalongs and there was clearly a lot of empathy between the audience and the performer. We apparently aren't the only ones with a soft spot for Josh Rouse in our hearts. We enjoyed dusting off the memories, but if you weren't already familiar with the tunes and the lyrics, it might not have been an inclusive experience.
Interestingly, it was an early show (doors at 5:00, music at 6:00) and it felt odd to leave a show at 7:00 while it was still light outside. But after the late-night drive coming back from Athens the evening before, the early end was a welcome relief.
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