LIVE REVIEW : JOSH ROUSE AT ISLINGTON ASSEMBLY HALLS 22/05/2013

This was my second visit at the Assembly Halls, the first one being for the Zombies last October. Josh Rouse is touring to promote his new LP "The Happiness Waltz" which sees him return to the sound he developed on his most successful albums ("1972" and "Nashville"). Before Josh Rouse came on with his backing, we got a small opening act courtesy of Sean Rowe, singer-songwriter from New-York (state not town, he insisted on the difference). Mr Rowe has a fantastic voice (a bit similar to Chris Rea) and is a very committed performer. He did a short set of his songs and finished with two covers (one being "Long Black Veil" made famous by versions by The Band and Johnny Cash).  Rouse came on stage after a short break accompanied by his 3 piece band. He choose to open the gig with a song from his first LP "Dressed Up Like Nebraska".He introduced the song by saying that each time he played it, he was reminded of feelings of being jet-lagged and of a promoter who one disliked the song and told him in no uncertain terms. This was followed by "Domesticated Lovers" (from "Country Mouse, City House", his best album after Nashville in my opinion, sadly a bit under-represented in tonight's set list) and by a few tunes from the new LP, including new single "Julie (Come out of the rain)". Predictably it was the songs from "1972" and "Nashville" that drew the biggest crowd response. Rouse seemed in good spirits if a little tired (can't use the jet lagged excuse now that he leaves in Spain !!!). He's not a hugely communicative performer but he did attempt a few jokes  including one weird one about how bad the weather had been that the day when it had been quite good (albeit by British standards). To round off the proceedings we got a couple of tunes from Subtitulo, El turista and the Long Vacations album. The backing band was good, shining on the harmonies with every member contributing. The guitar player seemed a bit tense on a couple of solos attracting a couple of raised eyebrows from Rouse. A good gig, that by bringing together songs from almost all his albums highlighted the high standards of Rouse's songwriting through the years