When writing a tag line for Josh Rouse, you can no longer say Nashville-based artist Josh Rouse but ironically you can say amazing songwriter and artist Josh Rouse, whose fifth album is called Nashville. For almost ten years Rouse called Tennessee home but on the eve of finishing Nashville he decided he was finished with Nashville.
After the dissolution of his marriage and after months spent soul searching Rouse decided to pack as little as possible, put the finishing touches on his album and split for Algea, Spain. And although he may have physically left his long-time artistic base of operations, he has left the rest of us with a musical tome of that town befitting the beautiful and complex nature of one of the most misunderstood music cities in the world.

But the album didn’t start out being called Nashville, it didn’t start out being called anything. After assembling this group of songs, Rouse ruminated on what to call this collection when a voice from above gave him the answer.

“The record was completely recorded and I was still kinda messing around with names,” Rouse remembers. “And we were flying back from L.A. in July and the Captain came over the intercom and was like ‘We’re landing in Nashville’ and I thought you know what, I’m gonna call the record Nashville.”

Upon reflection the title took on much more meaning to Rouse and it began to be revealed as more than just a random thought flying through the friendly skies.