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OLD SAYBROOK, CT - The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, "the Kate", presents Josh Rouse on Tuesday, June 28, 2022 at 7:30 pm. You don't have to work hard to enjoy Josh Rouse's music. His songs present themselves to you with an open heart, an innate intelligence and an absolute lack of pretension. They are clear-eyed, empathetic and penetrating. Without pandering, they seek to satisfy both your ear and your understanding. The verses draw you in with telling detail, both musical and thematic, and the choruses lift and deliver. They resolve without seeming overly tidy or pat. Rouse was born in Nebraska and following an itinerant upbringing he eventually landed in Nashville where he recorded his debut Dressed Like Nebraska (1998). The album's acclaim led to tours with Aimee Mann, Mark Etzel and the late Vic Chestnut. The follow up, Home (2000), yielded the song "Directions" which Cameron Crowe used in his film Vanilla Sky. For his breakthrough album, 1972 (2003), which happens to be the year he was born, Rouse decided to cheer up a bit. Noting that he'd earned a reputation for melancholy, he says, with a laugh, "I figured this is my career, I might as well try to enjoy it." He has continued writing and recording, even after relocating to Spain, and most recently released Love In the Modern Age (2018), which took its musical inspiration from the thinking man's pop of the eighties: The Blue Nile, Prefab Sprout and the Style Council. In 2019 he tackled the Christmas album on The Holiday Sounds of Josh Rouse but instead of well-worn carols or classics, he wrote an entire record of original holiday themed pop songs.

Opening the show are the acoustic duo of Shellye Valauskas and Dean Falcone of the Shellye Valauskas Experience. Based in the New Haven area, Valauskas and Falcone write meticulously crafted power pop songs, with an emphasis on "power." The songs hearken back to the finer moments of the 1970's and 1980's and are filled with sparkling melodies powered by sharp and often jangly electric guitars; think Big Star, The Raspberries and Aimee Mann. The latest release, History of Panic, is a collection of catchy choruses, swirly guitars and melodies that instantly draw you in and satisfy on every level. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.thekate.org or call 860-510-0453.

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