The Roches

Don't always like that first song they play on that Song From Home concert, but they got through to me.

Okay, “My Winter Coat” is great.

Mountain Stage recently re-broadcast Suzzy & Lucy's December set from home, and it's pretty involving,in some unexpected ways, like when voices infiltrate the big acoustic guitar---not boomy guitar, just something about the home recording plus the typically quirky Mountain Stage sound, at least on radio---haven't listened to the archived set yet, though incl. songs that didn't make the broadcast time constraints, from a very strong, variegated, cohesive li'l trip through originals and covers (Connie Converse, from the 50s, I think they said, comes across like a Roche, Suzzy's hip youngest aunt maybe), also "Factory Girl," not the Stones alas, but a vivid British folk song: Audio and playlist are herehttps://www.mountainstage.org/archives/Pages/playlist.aspx?playlistid=212

"when voices infilrate" that's mainly a passage in one song, I think; voices are up front most of the time.

Mother's Day show ov Lucy & Suzzy will be up for a while; if this link don't work check their Facebook:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExW86ZJ7b5U

Wow. Sounds incredible. Thank you

Oh, hi. Probably not quite the time or the place, butch thinking of doing a poll in Lucy’s dad in the near future, if there is any interest. Happy Mother’s Day!

Butch = been.

in=on

I wish you were butch until...sorry

Maggie Roche wrote an 8-minute song about how much she loves her winter coat, and it's utterly delightful

The 8+ minute title track is also amazing. Starting to think that's secretly one of their best albums.

Bracing live track here: https://pathwaytoparis.bandcamp.com/track/cold-october-day-live-lucy-wainwright-roche-and-suzzy-roche Some others here by them, Martha, Nicole Atkins (whom curmudgeon and I think sounds like 60s Laura Nyro, but def w her own songwriting style), David Johansen, others, sep and together--might have to get this benefit.
Which led me to the original "Cold October Day" and a lot more:https://lucywainwrightrochesuzzyroche.bandcamp.com/album/mud-apples

That was pretty great.

Singer-songwriter Terre Roche of the legendary NYC sibling folk trio, The Roches has announced the release of Kin Ya See That Sun, a collection of previously unreleased live recordings and original songs written and performed by Terre and her late sister Maggie. The 15-track album arrives digitally Friday, October 21.

Kin Ya See That Sun will also be released as a limited-edition book featuring illustrations by Terre, song lyrics, rare photographs, exclusive new interview excerpts, and additional background about the project (all book purchases receive a digital download of the album). The book is available for pre-order now.

Kin Ya See That Sun is heralded by today’s premiere of the title track which is the first song Terre and Maggie wrote together as children.

“I was 12 years old, and Maggie was 13,” says Terre Roche. “We were just learning to play guitar. We’d learned off a PBS special called ‘Folk Guitar with Laura Weber’ – I’ve always regretted that I never wrote Laura Weber a fan letter, and sadly she has passed away, but she taught us a bunch of guitar chords, strums and very cool folk songs we had never heard before. Maggie gave me this set of lyrics and I wrote the music for it. Though we had never traveled beyond our New Jersey home we had a longing to go out West.”

Listen to "Kin Ya See That Sun"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32KEU2dCPXE

Terre and Maggie Roche grew up in Park Ridge, NJ where they first fell in love with folk music before setting off to perform their own songs at college campuses around the country. The sisters toured the US by themselves, for more than two years, with 17-year-old Terre completing her senior year of high school by doing homework and exams while on the road. Paul Simon met them when they crashed his songwriting class at NYU. He would come to produce part of their album Seductive Reasoning and enlist them to sing background harmonies on his blockbuster third solo album, 1973’s There Goes Rhymin’ Simon. With his support, the sisters made their official debut with 1975’s now-classic Seductive Reasoning, featuring production from Simon and the renowned Paul Samwell-Smith (Cat Stevens, Carly Simon, Jethro Tull), with backing by the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.

Terre and Maggie were soon joined by youngest sister Suzzy as The Roches. Hailed for their irreverent, beguiling, and original approach to traditional folk songcraft and three-part harmony, the trio made a spectacular debut with 1979’s The Roches (produced by Robert Fripp, with whom Terre also collaborated on that same year’s milestone LP, Exposure), followed by a long series of recordings, tours, and TV appearances (including a memorable 1979 performance on Saturday Night Live).http://www.roches.com/television/snl79.html

Sadly, Maggie Roche passed away in 2017. Two years later, out of the blue, Terre received live recordings from two different people who had recorded her and Maggie performing in 1975 and 2000. Here were many of the songs from Seductive Reasoning as they were originally arranged, just two voices and two guitars. Highlights include powerful performances of fan favorites like “Telephone Bill” and “Damned Old Dog” (recorded during a 1975 promotional tour) and the classic “If You Emptied Out All Your Pockets You Could Not Make the Change,” the latter recorded during Terre and Maggie’s acclaimed run of concerts in 2000. All live recordings featured on Kin Ya See That Sun were restored and mastered by Thomas Millioto.

Kin Ya See That Sun further collects never-before-heard songs such as “The Colleges” and “Apostrophe to the Wind” alongside exclusive outtakes from Seductive Reasoning including “Pretty and High” (later re-recorded for The Roches’ eponymous debut) and the previously unreleased gem, “Moonruns,” both produced in London by Samwell-Smith.

“Working on this project has brought me back in touch with the deep spiritual connection Maggie and I shared at a point in our lives,” Terre Roche says. “You can hear that connection in these songs. Hearing the music we made together amazes me after all these years. And I feel her gratitude toward me, wherever she is now, for shepherding the songs in their pure form through some tough terrain and on out into the light for everyone to hear.”

Terre will celebrate the release of Kin Ya See That Sun with a special performance at New York City’s City Winery on October 18 at 7:30pm. Tickets are on sale now.

Tracklist:

Apostrophe to the Wind

Damned Old Dog

Down the Dream

If You Emptied Out All Your Pockets You Could Not Make the Change

Kin Ya See That Sun

Malachy’s

Moonruns

Pretty and High

Telephone Bill

The Burden of Proof

The Colleges

The Mountain People

West Virginia

Wigglin Man

Blabbermouth

www.terreroche.com

Press Contact:

Ken Weinstein

weinstein at bighassle.com

This has eight of the ten songs from Seductive Reasoning, which I think may be better than any of their first three records as the Roches. They're not relying as much as they would later on cleverness and whimsy, and there's a ghostly quality to a song like "West Virginia" that they didn't quite recapture later. Maybe the harmonic variety of writing and performing on piano as well as guitar gives it a greater range, too.

Seductive Reasoning was the first one I heard and the others were disappointing in comparison.

I first heard (and saw) them in 1979 on SNL. My 14 year old self had no idea what to make of them. I thought it was some kind of joke.

Buying this for my mom. Am I to understand that there will be no physical audio release? Just the book and digital? If this is the case, I'd say they are leaving some money on the table, given the age of their fanbase. Maybe I'm missing something. The website isn't super clear

This has eight of the ten songs from _Seductive Reasoning_, which I think may be better than any of their first three records as the Roches. They're not relying as much as they would later on cleverness and whimsy, and there's a ghostly quality to a song like "West Virginia" that they didn't quite recapture later. Maybe the harmonic variety of writing and performing on piano as well as guitar gives it a greater range, too.

Everything about that record is A++++, even the jokey songs.

I second this, though my 8yo absolutely hates this record

Another World is puzzling, it's hard to tell what they were trying to do with the production or whether they just acquiesced to it. It's simultaneously slick and cheap, which is a particularly bad combination in terms of 1985 sonics. There isn't even a lot of the goofy stuff that sometimes weighed down the previous records, but it's not generic enough to actual imagine it breaking through on the radio of the era.
This came out the same year as Suzanne Vega's debut, which I've heard discussed as a spearhead of a folk revival; I wonder if that would have been a better sound for them.

unexpected youtube comment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6zXhDUrZU8

@suzzyrocheandlucywainwrigh3600
5 months ago

Love this! xox -suzzy roche

(NB: not the best cover imho, but points for Hammond organ solo + drummer using the "Ashley's Roachclip" pattern)

Lol

I first heard Hammond Song through the Colourfield's version, which isn't very good, but it's funny to think of miserable post-punker Terry Hall digging the Roches in the early 80s. Perhaps Jane Wiedlin introduced him to them.

one more:

@moonsweptvilla5842
2 years ago

Wow, what a beautiful job you ladies have done. And a real honor for me to hear. I am Terre Roche. Your version of Hammond Song gave me goosebumps. Good luck with everything...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_vw58ooxCM

much better cover imho

(I think... maybe frogbs can confirm, but that might be Yumiko from Buffalo Daughter/Havana Exotica on Moog)

(I think... maybe frogbs can confirm, but that might be Yumiko from Buffalo Daughter/Havana Exotica on Moog)

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Monday, March 11, 2024 11:07 AM (eleven hours ago)

confirming this is indeed Yumiko, but what amazing tones... massive props for doing the Frippertronics on a hand-modeled Moog with bass pedals.

ok, last one I promise:

@RobertFrippVEVO
3 years ago

Thank you Goblin Cock for your amazing rendition which brought me to my knees... I can't imagine a better cover exists than this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tM65kpHzz0

lol

i love that one (and the I Love Your Smile cover on the same album). i do wish the DFH drums were a little less stationary though...

still weird to how people seem to connect with Hammond Song and not get The Roches otherwise though

I love Keep on Doing (their third album, second colab with Fripp + bonus Tony Levin and Bill Bruford). I think it's better than the debut, especially the song Losing True that has a killer Fripp spolo. They got better at singing somehow. But it ain't got a Hammond Song on it.

Also I love this video for Big Nuthin' one of my fav videos of all time - apparently written after a Johnny Carson appearance (he was a big fan!) When you're on Carson your whole life is supposed to change, but it was a big nuthin! We've all been there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbb5mSomdV8

Keep on Doing was my first one and probably my overall favourite too. i can understand when people recoil from the "really annoying hip camp counselor vibe" on things like Want Not Want Not (though I love that one) but there's I Fell in Love, Keep on Doing / Jerks on the Loose, Losing True with all those same long keening harmonising lines that make you feel funny.

my controp might wishing there was no Robert Fripp guitar on these albums...

people disappointed by Another World should check out the Speak album. there's some great (chintzy) stuff on that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0gvW-OyFrQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msWtFyBGGHU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivZsQDWRKvI

Love their Christmas album, We Three Kings. “Star of Wonder” has such an indelible melody that I always assumed it was a cover of an old hymn or something! But Terre wrote it - it’s such a gem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNbEXZuVmKs

YESSSS! I love their version of Walking In A Winter Wonderland too

they played actual roches on tiny toons!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_dA_wEFfzw

the Roches hate that kicks off this thread is wild. they are wonderful

xp AH that's so awesome!!!

It had a really annoying hip camp counselor vibe.

I mean, "hip camp counselor vibe" is sort of OTM but not 'annoying'

Warner Bros really should have done a full out "Warner Years" box/reissue series with all the outtakes/extras when that was still a thing, maybe Light in the Attic could but i don't know how rights work for this kind of thing and i feel outside of The Hammond Song mini-cult they don't have much of a profile these days. At least can someone upload a clean rip of this to youtube, I'm not asking much?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMD1O8W9ujU

I think there have been discussions about this elsewhere, but I think you need a boutique to license this material. (Rhino Handmade would be ideal if they were still around.) The fact that even the CD for their debut album was allowed to go out-of-print before the market really tanked was a bad sign of how little WB was invested in them by the time the '00s rolled around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aBF_v0gvpQ

hammond song heavily featured here

Some additional stuff (marimba, piano, strings, brass?) added in post.

I will say that when I listen I remember that the highs are so high they make you forget some pretty duff material