Maggie Roche (October 26, 1951 – January 21, 2017) was the eldest of the trio of singing sisters the Roches, whose songs bridged the gap between American folk and pop styles. Maggie brought her low alto voice to the harmonies she wove with her sisters, Terre and Suzzy, in her quirky, often funny but always heartfelt songs.
Maggie grew up in Park Ridge, New Jersey, in an Irish Catholic family, the daughter of John Roche, an actor, and his wife, Jude (nee Jewell). Her father wrote songs for local political candidates, which were sung by the teenage Maggie and Terre. The sisters caught the songwriting bug, performing at school and church functions. Maggie briefly studied at Bard College, New York state. In addition to singing, Maggie played guitar and keyboards, but she often stayed in the shadows. Suzzy described her as a private person, sensitive and shy, but “smart, wickedly funny and authentic”.
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| Suzzy, Maggie and Terre |
Maggie received her first big break when she and Terre attended a songwriting course led by Paul Simon at New York University in 1970. The experience gave the two sisters added confidence to write and perform, and when looking for a record company they contacted Simon, who used them as backing singers on his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, paid for their music lessons and then helped produce their duo album, Seductive Reasoning (1975). Though Simon recognised their talent, the experience overwhelmed the two sisters, who disappeared for six months to study martial arts. Upon their return, they were joined by Suzzy, performing as a trio at Gerde’s Folk City and elsewhere in Greenwich Village, New York.
Maggie Roche had an "unusual" contralto voice – "almost a baritone." Terre provided a soprano that brackets the upper range of the sisters, while Suzzy filled in the middle range. While touring, the sisters accompanied themselves with guitars and keyboards, occasionally with additional musicians. The Roches’ reputation spread: the New York Times identified them as leaders of a new folk revival, and they played support to visiting headline acts.
Robert Fripp of King Crimson admired the women’s unusual songs and style, and when both he and they signed for Warner he was ideally placed to produce the trio’s eponymous first album in 1979. The record, which included Maggie’s songs The Married Men and Hammond Song, established their reputation. The follow-up, Nurds (1980), was surpassed by the more acoustic sound on Keep on Doing (1982), which included their unlikely but often requested arrangement of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.
Although the Roches never broke through to achieve chart success, they took it in their stride, together writing Big Nuthin’ about a television show that was going to change their careers but which turned out to be a “big nuthin’”. When they played it on Johnny Carson’s TV show, he failed to see the joke. Nevertheless, they paved the way for female singer-songwriters in the 1980s and 90s, with Indigo Girls citing them as an early influence; the Roches guested on a couple of Indigo Girls albums.
Further albums included Another World (1985) and a Christmas record, We Three Kings (1990). Their songs featured on the soundtrack of the film Crossing Delancey (1988), and they provided voiceovers for animated cockroaches in Steven Spielberg’s television cartoon series Tiny Toon Adventures. They toured the UK, appearing at the Cambridge folk festival (1981, 1993) and on BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test. They sang on several Loudon Wainwright III albums: he was Suzzy’s partner for a while, and their daughter, Lucy, sang occasionally with the Roches. After a tour interrupted by the death of their father, the Roches released Can We Go Home Now (1995), the last original recording they released as a trio until 2007.
In 1997, the sisters formally put their group on long-term hold. They continued to work on solo projects and often collaborated on albums and performances. Terre teaches guitar workshops and has released a solo album. Suzzy, who has acted on the stage and in several movies, released two of her own albums and two with Maggie, with whom she toured. All three sisters periodically participated in New York-area events. At the end of 2005, the three Roches (with brother Dave) reunited for a short but successful holiday tour.
Several more appearances in the U.S. and Canada took place in 2006–07, and in March 2007, after a 12-year hiatus, the Roches released a new studio album, Moonswept. Following the tour for Moonswept, the Roches announced that they would no longer be touring, although they continued to make isolated appearances individually and as a group, mostly in and around New York City.
On January 21, 2017, Maggie Roche died from breast cancer at the age of 65.
(Edited from Guardian article by Derek Schofield & Wikipedia)