It runs in the family

By Henry Lipput

“It runs in the family” sang Maggie, Terre, and Suzzy Roche on their debut album The Roches. 

And their talent continues to run in the family. Suzzy and her daughter, Lucy Wainwright Roche (her father is Loudon Wainwright III and her half-brother is Rufus Wainwright), have released I Can Still Hear You (StorySound Records), their third collaboration. The recordings began in Nashville and then Suzzy and Lucy completed the project during quarantine in their apartments in New York, one in Manhattan and the other in Brooklyn.

I’ve been a fan of The Roches since that first album came out in 1979 and it’s a real treat to hear voices like those again. I Can Still Hear You is like a warm embrace from a long-time friend and as Suzzy has said about the album “In a time when so many people are suffering, you hope that you can put something out into the world that will comfort.” It’s also a message from them that we’re not alone but in this together. So, it’s great to see you again, Suzzy, and it’s wonderful to meet you, Lucy.

In Lucy’s “I Can Still Hear You” she asks someone who is no longer with her to “Remember the words or the parts that you saved/Or carousel horses or have the summer behaved/Or off in the distance/Remember me too/‘Cause I can still hear you.” There’s a ghostly vibe to the song, reflected in the piano playing in the song’s middle as well as the video which shows empty New York streets during the lockdown. 

Suzzy's“I Think I Am A Soul” is a song for these times as we have faced stay-at-home orders and only essential businesses staying open. If no one sees us for days at a time, do we still exist? “Floating around 14th Street every day/Shopping for tomatoes/Stopping at the light,” Suzzy sings. “The soul that I am gets lonesome like a million others.”

“Swan Duck Song,”also from Suzzy, is both a fairy tale and a recognition of how people and things can change over time and take many forms. “I went to the pond today/Looking for the swan,” she sings. “But the swan had turned into a duck/Tough case/Bad luck.” A few months later, Suzzy returns to the pond and the duck is gone but she does hear the sound of a tiny bird in the sky: “The duck said look at me/Now I‘m a hummingbird. “ (On a personal note: my sister believes, and I have no reason to doubt her, that the hummingbird that comes to the feeder on her deck is the spirit of our mother who passed away more than five years ago. She also thinks the other hummingbird who always crashes into a window is our father.)

Whether it’s genetics or a sign of how much they love each other, there are times when Suzzy and Lucy harmonize on songs like “Talkin’ Like You (Two Tall Mountains)” and “I Think I Am A Soul” that recall the vocals of Suzzy and Terre on albums by The Roches. All that’s missing is the addition of Maggie who lost her fight with cancer in 2017. But Maggie’s voice still lives on (you can hear it on a wonderful collection  Suzzy put together) and her spirit is very much a part of I Can Still Hear You. Maggie sang lead on the traditional Irish song “Factory Girl” on The Roches’ 1980 Nurds album. Lucy brings the song back on I Can Still Hear You as a tribute to her aunt and she also sings “Jane,” a song that Maggie wrote when she was 18 and has never been recorded until now.

Next time: Triple Play #2 (More from 2020)