b. 1972, Nebraska, USA. This US singer-songwriter grew up in Nebraska but spent much of his teenage life following his father from state to state on military assignments. Rouse, who played in both high school orchestras and punk bands, studied at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee before resuming his itinerant wanderings. He finally settled in Nashville in the mid-90s where his music career began to take a more coherent shape.
Rouse’s 1998 debut Dressed Up Like Nebraska was recorded with engineer and cellist David Henry and released by the Slow River subsidiary of Rykodisc Records. The album’s rootsy folk rock provided the perfect backing for Rouse’s carefully observed vignettes of everyday life, and earned acclaim on the roots and alt country scene. The following year Rouse collaborated with Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner on the six-track EP Chester, providing the music for Wagner’s typically oblique lyrics. His second album, Home, was equally well-received and with tracks being licensed to television and film soundtracks Rouse was able to give up his day job as a hotel valet parking attendant.
The 2002 release Under Cold Blue Stars was better produced than his previous two albums, embellishing Rouse’s songs to great effect with an array of horns, loops and strings. Rouse received further exposure when ‘Directions’, a track from Home, was featured on the soundtrack of Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky. The following year’s 1972, taking its inspiration from the year in which Rouse was born, was a gorgeously performed and affectionate pastiche of that era’s music.
