Biography
A celebrated vocalist and songwriter, Suzzy Roche first gained recognition as one of three siblings in the harmony trio the Roches, yet she has sustained an independent creative path since the group ended its run. Within the Roches she supplied the middle harmony line, while her individual performances reveal a warmly expressive timbre that suits the wry, lightly offbeat material she writes about romance and everyday mishaps. Although she has issued solo recordings, she has often gravitated toward collaborative singing, initially alongside her sisters and later with her daughter.
Her lone 2000 album, Songs from an Unmarried Housewife and Mother, Greenwich Village, USA, stands as a notable solo statement. Two years afterward she joined her sister Maggie Roche for Zero Church, and in 2020 she partnered with Lucy Wainwright Roche on I Can Still Hear You.
Born in Park Ridge, New Jersey, on September 29, 1956, Suzzy grew up alongside older sisters Maggie Roche, born in 1951, and Terre Roche, born in 1953, both accomplished singers and composers who would influence her own development. Paul Simon discovered the elder pair, recruited them for background vocals on his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin' Simon, and oversaw their 1975 release Seductive Reasoning. That project received favorable notices yet modest commercial returns; once Maggie and Terre reconvened they invited Suzzy into the fold, forming the Roches. The trio’s incisive songwriting, which balanced poignancy with wit, together with their polished vocal blend, earned them a devoted East Coast folk audience and a Warner Bros. contract. Their self-titled 1979 debut, guided by producer Robert Fripp, drew enthusiastic critical praise and, despite limited chart success, cultivated a lasting cult following that supported ten albums issued between 1979 and 1995.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s Suzzy maintained a relationship with singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III; their daughter Lucy Wainwright Roche was born in 1981. She also began an acting career, appearing first in the 1982 feature Soup for One and subsequently in Almost You, Crossing Delancey, and My New Gun.
The Roches entered an indefinite hiatus in 1997, the same year Suzzy issued her debut solo album Holy Smoke, its title drawn from a phrase her father often used. He passed away during the sisters’ tour supporting their 1994 children’s record Will You Be My Friend?. Her second solo outing, the varied and introspective Songs from an Unmarried Housewife and Mother, Greenwich Village, USA, arrived in 2000. She and Maggie Roche later recorded the duo projects Zero Church in 2002 and Why the Long Face in 2004. Although Suzzy contributed to albums by Rufus Wainwright, the Indigo Girls, Beck, and Dar Williams, she did not headline another release until the Roches briefly reunited for 2007’s Moonswept, the trio’s final album; Maggie Roche succumbed to cancer in 2017. Suzzy maintained her stage work, frequently performing with New York’s experimental Wooster Group.
Her first novel, Wayward Saints, appeared in 2012, followed in 2013 by the children’s book Want to Be in a Band?. That same year Lucy Wainwright Roche’s emerging career prompted the mother-daughter album Fairytale and Myth; the pair returned to the studio for 2016’s Mud and Apples. In 2020 Suzzy released her second novel, The Town Crazy, and completed her third collaborative album with Lucy, I Can Still Hear You.
Her lone 2000 album, Songs from an Unmarried Housewife and Mother, Greenwich Village, USA, stands as a notable solo statement. Two years afterward she joined her sister Maggie Roche for Zero Church, and in 2020 she partnered with Lucy Wainwright Roche on I Can Still Hear You.
Born in Park Ridge, New Jersey, on September 29, 1956, Suzzy grew up alongside older sisters Maggie Roche, born in 1951, and Terre Roche, born in 1953, both accomplished singers and composers who would influence her own development. Paul Simon discovered the elder pair, recruited them for background vocals on his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin' Simon, and oversaw their 1975 release Seductive Reasoning. That project received favorable notices yet modest commercial returns; once Maggie and Terre reconvened they invited Suzzy into the fold, forming the Roches. The trio’s incisive songwriting, which balanced poignancy with wit, together with their polished vocal blend, earned them a devoted East Coast folk audience and a Warner Bros. contract. Their self-titled 1979 debut, guided by producer Robert Fripp, drew enthusiastic critical praise and, despite limited chart success, cultivated a lasting cult following that supported ten albums issued between 1979 and 1995.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s Suzzy maintained a relationship with singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III; their daughter Lucy Wainwright Roche was born in 1981. She also began an acting career, appearing first in the 1982 feature Soup for One and subsequently in Almost You, Crossing Delancey, and My New Gun.
The Roches entered an indefinite hiatus in 1997, the same year Suzzy issued her debut solo album Holy Smoke, its title drawn from a phrase her father often used. He passed away during the sisters’ tour supporting their 1994 children’s record Will You Be My Friend?. Her second solo outing, the varied and introspective Songs from an Unmarried Housewife and Mother, Greenwich Village, USA, arrived in 2000. She and Maggie Roche later recorded the duo projects Zero Church in 2002 and Why the Long Face in 2004. Although Suzzy contributed to albums by Rufus Wainwright, the Indigo Girls, Beck, and Dar Williams, she did not headline another release until the Roches briefly reunited for 2007’s Moonswept, the trio’s final album; Maggie Roche succumbed to cancer in 2017. Suzzy maintained her stage work, frequently performing with New York’s experimental Wooster Group.
Her first novel, Wayward Saints, appeared in 2012, followed in 2013 by the children’s book Want to Be in a Band?. That same year Lucy Wainwright Roche’s emerging career prompted the mother-daughter album Fairytale and Myth; the pair returned to the studio for 2016’s Mud and Apples. In 2020 Suzzy released her second novel, The Town Crazy, and completed her third collaborative album with Lucy, I Can Still Hear You.
Albums
Singles
