Terre Roche

BIOGRAPHY

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).

 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.