Nikki Rouse has had a long and varied career in the performing arts. A lifelong Maryland native, she was born and raised in Kensington. She took some obligatory piano lessons while in elementary school, but gave it up to study classical ballet, taking classes privately and at the Washington Ballet. At 13, her parents bought her first guitar, and with the Vietnam War in full swing, she immediately wrote her first protest song. Many more were to follow, but were heard only by close friends and passerby on the Bethany Beach Boardwalk.

Nikki majored in both Performance and Technical Theater in college, studying jazz dance with the Alvin Ailey Company and acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She worked as an actress in dinner theaters, toured with a children’s Shakespeare Theater, did radio voiceovers, commercials, and "extras" work with several television and movie productions. Still, her songwriting remained a secret passion, shared only with family and close friends, and her catalog of original songs was building.

One night, Nikki and a friend stumbled into a crowded little bar in Georgetown called The Saloon, where an old blues cat sat strumming on a beat-up old guitar, accompanied by a bass player. With the guitarist's encouragement, she joined in. Nikki and Archie sang a long round of Summertime, and Archie invited Nikki to come back regularly. She spent the rest of summer learning to sing the blues at Archie’s shows, and at his urging, started performing her own originals as well. It would be years before she recognized the blessing of spending a summer with the late great Archie Edwards as a mentor.

She toured the east coast with a folk rock band called John’s Thumb, sang and played a bit of electric guitar with a theatrical 50’s revival band, opening for Root Boy Slim, among others.

After marriage to her best friend and former band-mate Dave Rouse, and the births of three sons, she returned to her songwriting in earnest in 1996. Since that time, she has performed and recorded with other independent artists in Portland, Oregon, Chicago, Philadelphia, Nashville, Hartford, Boston and New York. She can be found locally at venues such as The Year of the Rabbit, FineWine.com, Seattle's Best Coffeehouse, Borders, Jammin’ Java, and many local and regional festivals.

Nikki's debut CD, Chocolate and Morphine, was released in August of 2003, and is receiving raves of recognition.