JSOnline.com Review
By: Jon M. Gilbertson - jsonline.com

In a time of hype so loudly ubiquitous that another term might have to be coined, the folks who reopened the Turner Hall Ballroom opted for a quieter approach by booking Josh Rouse as the venue's inaugural headliner Friday night. As befits a singer-songwriter with roots in Nebraska, Rouse walked onstage dressed for the occasion-three-piece suit, albeit beneath scruffy hair and face. But he held the stage with modest energy. In terms of overt, or extrovert, performance, he didn't appear to "do" much. Rouse let the music carry him, rather than the other way around. His confidence was not misplaced; his songs have enough melodic intelligence and verbal honesty to get across without the need for much flash. Most of the show could probably have worked with just an acoustic guitar and Rouse's voice, a rasp so homey - in the sense of comfort for the weary - that he could get away with what would otherwise have been commonplace Read More...