The music and songwriting of Maggie Rochie of The Roches, who died last year, will be celebrated on a two-CD set, Where Do I Come From: Selected Songs, which will include songs from throughout her career, as well as four previously unreleased tracks.
The New Jersey native released albums with her sisters Terre and Suzzy under the name The Roches, as well duo albums with both Terre and Suzzy, but this will be the first album released under her own name.
To pre-order the album, visit suzzyroche.com/shop–cart.
“In the last weeks of Maggie’s life, we spent countless hours talking, laughing, crying, and reminiscing about our amazing journey together,” said Suzzy Roche, in a press release. “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.”
The album will be released on Oct. 26, which would have been Roche’s 67th birthday.
The four new songs are:
• “Stayin’ Home,” which is “an early song that provides a snapshot of a young feisty Maggie as she ventures out into the world,” according to the press release.
• “Down the Dream,” a demo of the song that was released on the 1975 Maggie and Terre Roche album, Seductive Reasoning.
• “Where Do I Come From,” previously unreleased in any form, and possibly the last song she wrote.
• “Christmas Love,” not written in time to make it onto The Roches 1990 We Three Kings Christmas album, but recorded here, by her family, in her memory.
These are the songs that will be included:
DISC ONE
“Malachy’s” (from Maggie and Terre Roche’s Seductive Reasoning, 1975)
“Burden of Proof” (from Seductive Reasoning)
“Jill of All Trades” (from Seductive Reasoning)
“Underneath the Moon” (from Seductive Reasoning)
“West Virginia” (from Seductive Reasoning)
“Stayin’ Home” (previously unreleased demo)
“Down the Dream” (previously unreleased demo)
“Hammond Song” (from The Roches, 1979)
“The Married Men” (from The Roches)
“Quitting Time” (from The Roches)
“Pretty and High” (from The Roches)
“This Feminine Position” (from The Roches’ Nurds, 1980)
“Losing True” (from The Roches’ Keep on Doing, 1982)
“The Scorpion Lament” (from Keep on Doing)
“No Trespassing” (from The Roches’ No Trespassing, 1986)
“Christmas Love” (previously unreleased studio recording)
DISC TWO
“Speak” (from The Roches’ Speak, 1989)
“Big Nuthin’ ” (from Speak)
“Cloud Dancing” (from Speak)
“In the World” (from Speak)
“Nocturne” (from Speak)
“Feeling Is Mutual” (from Speak)
“A Dove” (from The Roches’ A Dove, 1992)
“You’re the One” (from A Dove)
“Can We Go Home Now” (from The Roches’ Can We Go Home Now, 1995)
“You (Make My Life Come True)” (from Can We Go Home Now)
“My Winter Coat” (from Can We Go Home Now)
“A Prayer” (from Suzzy and Maggie Roche’s Zero Church, 2002)
“One Season” (from Suzzy and Maggie Roche’s Why the Long Face, 2004)
“Broken Places” (from Why the Long Face)
“Family of Bones” (from The Roches’ Moonswept, 2007)
“Where Do I Come From” (previously unreleased home recording)
The Sheen Center in New York will present “A Celebration of the Songs of Maggie Roche With a Holiday Twist: Suzzy Roche and Lucy Wainwright Roche With Special Guests,” Dec. 4 at 8 p.m.; visit sheencenter.org.
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