The Roches Are Back (Kind of) With a New, Posthumous Solo Album From a Dearly Departed Sister

If you don’t know The Roches, you really need to stop what you’re doing and listen to, say, “Hammond Song" The Roches were three sisters from what they described as “deepest New Jersey” who learned to sing harmony in the back of their parents’ car on the New Jersey Turnpike and then grew up to sing songs that were so clear and sure and so not like other songs in the early ’80s in New York City. The first Roches album was born of failure: Maggie and Terre Roche had gone to England to record as a duo. They’d gotten a record deal thanks to one of their mentors, Paul Simon, who they sang backup for on There Goes Rhymin’ Simon. Record companies wanted a certain kind of album from two women in the early ’80s—i.e., something with an equal amount of power chords and frizzed-out hair—and when the Roches did not appear to be delivering, they were called back from England. “I think the record company was trying to get them to wear certain clothes,” Suzzy Roche, the youngest of the Roches, recalled when I spoke to her the other day. “And at one point the company had one quote unquote coach come in and try to get one of them to get down on her knees during a song. You know, it was weird.”

Thus, the two sisters returned to New York, and their little sister joined up with them. “They said, ‘Screw the music business—we’re going to sing in the streets!’ ” The Roches were born. They started to busk. It was near Christmas. They busked singing holiday songs. Crowds gathered, big crowds. The holidays passed and they added to their repertoire, and, in 1979, the three of them made an album, a crazy beautiful album that was produced by Robert Fripp, who would work with Blondie and Bowie and would say of the Roches (in Suzzy’s recollection): “You will never be hugely successful, but you will influence many people coming after you.”

Maggie Roche 'Where Do I Come From' will be released October 26. 

Read the full article and watch the video HERE

Where Do I Come From, a 32-track, 2CD collection of songs by Maggie Roche (1951-2017), will be released by StorySound Records on what would have been the beloved singer's 67th birthday, October 26th, providing a immersive and poignant look at one of our most original American songwriters.

Maggie, who passed away in 2017 after a long struggle with cancer, was at the center of the long-running and much-admired music group The Roches, created with her sisters Terre and Suzzy. Maggie composed her songs for three voices, fashioning the signature sound of The Roches. Where Do I Come From spans her entire music career, from her 1975 duo album with Terre, through The Roches 2007 reunion record. The collection, which has been compiled in close collaboration with Suzzy, also features four previously unreleased recordings: "Stayin’ Home," an early song that provides a snapshot of a young feisty Maggie as she ventures out into the world. "Down The Dream," a live studio track recorded after word that Columbia Records had doubts about the progress Maggie and Terre were making in their recording sessions. (Another version of the song wound up on the 1975 duo album Seductive Reasoning, but this demo is classic, unedited Maggie.) "Where Do I Come From," the title track, was found among Maggie’s things after her death and is most likely the last song she wrote. The newly recorded Christmas song, "Christmas Love," was not written in time to make it onto We Three Kings, the Roches cherished 1990 Christmas album. Her family, in loving memory, sings "Christmas Love" for this collection.

"In the last weeks of Maggie’s life, we spent countless hours talking, laughing, crying, and reminiscing about our amazing journey together," says Suzzy. "She asked me to take care of her music. One thing she told me several times is that she regretted not making a solo recording. In her absence, this is the closest I could come to fulfilling her wish."

Maggie was a soft-spoken, radical soul who sought, above all, authenticity and freedom of expression. She’d have to be considered a feminist voice, well ahead of her time. Isolating her songs from the rest of The Roches catalogue further highlights her unique point of view. This release goes out into the world as a celebration of the life and music of a deep and bold, yet shy artist, whose sensitivity was so keen that the rigors of the music business and public exposure at times seemed to work against her devotion to her own art, which took a front seat to everything else.

Upon her death, Maggie's listeners stepped forward to exclaim their deep connection to her through her music. Where Do I Come From is for those listeners as well as the many who have yet to discover her music.

Track listing for Where Do I Come From

Disc One

1. Malachy’s (from Seductive Reasoning, 1975)
2. Burden of Proof  (from Seductive Reasoning)
3. Jill of All Trades (from Seductive Reasoning)
4. Underneath the Moon (from Seductive Reasoning)
5. West Virginia (from Seductive Reasoning)
6. Stayin’ Home (previously Unreleased demo)
7. Down the Dream (previously Unreleased demo)
8. Hammond Song (from The Roches, 1979)
9. The Married Men (from The Roches)
10. Quitting Time (from The Roches)
11. Pretty and High (from The Roches)
12. This Feminine Position (from Nurds, 1980)
13. Losing True (from Keep On Doing, 1982)
14. The Scorpion Lament (from Keep On Doing, 1982)
15. No Trespassing (from No Trespassing, 1986)
16. Christmas Love (Unreleased studio recording)

Disc Two

1. Speak (from Speak, 1989)
2. Big Nuthin’ (from Speak)
3. Cloud Dancing (from Speak)
4. In the World (from Speak)
5. Nocturne (from Speak)
6. Feeling Is Mutual (from Speak)
7. A Dove (from A Dove, 1992)
8. You’re the One (from A Dove)
9. Can We Go Home Now (from Can We Go Home Now, 1995)
10. You (Make My Life Come True) (from Can We Go Home Now)
11. My Winter Coat (from Can We Go Home Now)
12. A Prayer (from Zero Church, 2002)
13. One Season (from Why the Long Face, 2004)
14. Broken Places (from Why the Long Face)
15. Family of Bones (from Moonswept, 2007)
16. Where Do I Come From (Unreleased home recording)

5 Things We Learned From Loudon Wainwright III's Intimate NYC Show

by Joe Lynch

While many practitioners of the singer-songwriter genre in the '70s approached politics, love, and self-examination with the deadly seriousness of the singer as The Artist, showing the full range of human emotion was never a problem for Loudon Wainwright III.

Although hailed as a 'new Dylan' when he debuted, Wainwright was far more comfortable indulging in self-effacement and even a goofy side, unabashedly going for laughs with his wry lyrics and winking delivery. Of course there were serious autobiographical songs about sadness and failures, but he never bothered fostering that marmoreal cool so many did in the post Dylan scene, skewing closer to musical humorists like Tom Lehrer. That helped endear him to a cultish following as well as famous fans such as Johnny Cash (who covered "The Man Who Couldn't Cry" on American Recordings) and Judd Apatow (who is producing his upcoming Christopher Guest-directed Netflix special Surviving Twin based on his one-man show about his late father, a Life magazine columnist).

Wainwright's penchant for performance was on full display Monday (July 16) night at the intimate Caveat (a self-proclaimed "bar for intelligent nightlife") in Manhattan. In conversation with fellow artist Chuck Prophet, Wainwright spoke on his upcoming two-disc release Years In the Making, a collection of 42 unreleased and rare tracks spanning 45 years. His eclecticism is nodded to in the packaging of the set, which segments his songs into seven "chapters" such as folk, rock, kids, "love hurts" and more.

Read the entire article HERE

Loudon Wainwright III Shares Video for Unreleased 1985 Song 'Floods of Tears': Premiere

by Gary Graff

Loudon Wainwright III considers his upcoming compilation Years in the Making an "audiobiography." And rest assured the two-disc, 42-track set, coming out Sept. 14, features plenty of his story that you've never heard before -- including the previously unreleased "Floods of Tears," whose video is premiering exclusively below.

Put together by Wainwright and regular collaborator Dick Connette, Years in the Making pulls together all sorts of Wainwright recorded ephemera from his vaults, including deep album tracks, outtakes, home demos, live recordings, radio appearances and more. There are recordings of his children singing "Happy Birthday" to him, along with his "The Animal Song," alongside collaborations with Suzzy Roche, Bill Frisell, Van Dyke Parks and Wainwright's first wife, the late Kate McGarrigle, dueting on a 1974 home recording of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere."

Read the full article and watch the video HERE

White Tiger included in the Uproxx Music Guide to the best  new albums, mixtapes, and other music releases that matter this week. Stream the BEST new albums this week. 

Ana Egge is clearly proficient at purveying pillow-soft indie folk, such as with the Belle And Sebastian-like whimsy of album opener “Girls, Girls, Girls.” It’s low-tempo, but not low-energy, as there’s a ton of vivacity behind the rest of the serene tunes on this record.

Ana Egge White Tiger

Ana Egge’s tenth release again features her sweet vocal delivery and an assured grasp of acoustic guitar picking, at times in the style of Mississippi John Hurt, though, in reality, the album could never be called a blues release. Following the deserved success of her previous offering Say That Now, in 2016, when she was backed by a Danish band, the Sentimentals, Egge has again crafted a batch of songs that speak of love, of small-town tristesse and homely comforts, songs that sparkle with honesty and emotion.

The lady herself may be a newcomer to many, but has been working steadily for many years, honing her skills as a singer/songwriter in the traditional US roots music world, touring from time to time and always holding on to her optimism and promise. In recent years she has worked alongside the likes of John Prine, Iris DeMent ( a clear influence), Steve James and Lucinda Williams. Steve Earle has helped out, producing an earlier release at Levon Helm’s old studio in Woodstock, so this is a young lady with a fair pedigree and bags of purpose and ambition.

If pushed to classify her music, it probably falls into the old, US folk-singer-cum-modern Americana, singer/songwriter end of things. But in truth it’s music that speaks to the heart and soul, without ever being too demanding or disturbing. Having previously picked up a number of awards for her writing and performing, Egge may well be looking ahead with hope as her new release features nine self-penned tracks and a John Hartford cover.

With White Tiger, Egge has assembled a fine band and written a bunch of songs that linger in the memory long after the end of the disc. A bit of an unsung delight, this is an album to savour.

—Iain Patience

Read the full reveiw HERE

Artist: Ana Egge
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Song: “Girls, Girls, Girls”
Album: White Tiger
Release Date: June 8, 2018
Label: StorySound Records

In Their Words: “When I first moved to NYC it was such an exciting time. Like it can be for so many people to find such freedom in a city of millions of people in constant change. I lived in a 6’x10′ room that looked out at a brick wall 4′ from the window and slept on a piece of foam on the floor where my head and toes touched either wall. I loved it. My friend Anthony and I would walk along the water on the west side and around Chelsea and laugh about who we didn’t see pass us. He’d see the gay boys and I’d see the girls. My freewheeling early days in the city are in this song. Maybe that’s why it feels so good every time I sing it.” — Ana Egge

Ana Egge is no stranger to the music scene – the folk singer-songwriter released her debut album a little over a decade ago, and has shared the stage and studio with an enviable number of highly acclaimed musicians and producers throughout her career. We’re premiering “Dance Around The Room With Me” today, and it features a line up of fellow Brooklyn-based musicians, including Anais Mitchell on background vocals and Big Thief’s Buck Meek on guitar. “Dance Around The Room With Me” is the lead single from Egge’s upcoming album, White Tiger.

The spirited and vivacious track is about traversing through life deeply attuned to each cursory feeling, even the ones that seem insignificant or sting mercilessly. Egge wrote it with her daughter in mind, hoping to instill in her the practice of stepping back, taking stock, and dancing still. In it, she declares a warmly buoyant mantra: “Dance around the room with me / Start dancing and you’ll see / How it opens up, opens up your heart.”

About the track, Egge said: “Being a mother and getting to know the ends of my patience and understanding the importance of modeling good behavior has brought me to some messy and creative places. Encouraging my daughter to experience her feelings when they come up so that she’s not afraid of them makes me, necessarily, need to practice the same thing. I think it’s true what they say about our fear of a feeling being much worse than the feeling itself. When I’m really feeling something I know who I am and I am in the moment. I am alive. Why not dance through it together?”

Read the full article and listen to the track HERE