“Like a baseball player who quietly hits 30 home runs every year or a golfer who regularly finishes in the Top Ten, Josh Rouse's continued streak of excellence is easy to ignore and maybe even downplay a little”--Tim Sendra, Allmusic.com. You don’t have to work hard to enjoy 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.
Josh 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.
Rouse has released many, many albums all of them complete Gems in the ensuing years and on June 25th he was live at The Linda. Here is Josh Rouse.
Seth Walker is often cited as one of the most prolific contemporary Americana artists on the scene today. He’s a multi-dimensional talent who combines a gift for melody and lyric alongside a rich, Gospel-drenched, South-ern-inflected voice with a true-blue knack for getting around on the guitar
Growing up on a commune in rural North Carolina, the son of classically trained musicians, Seth Walker played cello long before discovering the guitar in his 20s. When his introduction to the blues came via his Uncle Landon Walker, who was both a musician and disc jockey, his fate was forever sealed. Instantaneously, Seth was looking to artists like T-Bone Walker, Snooks Eaglin, and B.B. King as a wellspring of endless inspiration. The rest is history. He's released ten albums, broken into the Top 20 of the Americana Radio Charts, reached No. 2 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart and received praise from NPR, American Songwriter, No Depression and Relix, among others. Perhaps Country Standard Time said it best: “If you subscribe to the Big Tent theory of Americana, then Seth Walker –with his blend of blues, gospel, pop, R&B, rock, and a dash country—just might be your poster boy.” Let’s get into Seth Walker from June 9th, 2022 live at The Linda.
Sue Foley has been playing guitar since she was 13 years old. Like so many other musicians, it was the music of the early Rolling Stones that inducted her into the world of the blues. As she started working with other bands, she made her way to the Mark Hummel group and began touring Canada and northern America. When Austin blues nightclub and label owner, Clifford Antone saw her at the annual Blues Music Awards in Memphis, he knew he’d met an all-timer. Before long, Foley was living in Austin and, in 1992, recorded her debut album YOUNG GIRL BLUES. They say some things are meant to be, and surely it was this connection with Antone and Austin that set the stage for much of the blues woman’s life.
At the heart of it all has always been the guitar, though. It’s the sound of Sue Foley’s soul that comes out of the six strings, and it’s no accident that her new album PINKY’S BLUES, is named after her pink paisley Fender Telecaster electric guitar that has been such a major part of Foley’s life for all these years. Sue is an award winner many, many times over and this concert she was fresh off her heels of winning two Memphis Blues Awards. From June 17th, 2022 here is Sue Foley live at The Linda.
Thanks for sticking with us this week. Next week, we preview a few of the artists that will be joining us for Summer on Central: Grape Juice 2022, North by North 2021, Girl Blue 2021, Kyla Silk 2021, and Jordan Taylor Hill 2022. For more information about The Linda or any upcoming events follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or visit thelinda.org.
