Reading Diccon Johnston’s article where the last link in the Chain Gang centres on The Cowboy Junkies, got me thinking about other bands with three siblings in them. There are quite a few “pop” bands such as The Beach Boys, The Bee Gees, Jonas Brothers (!) etc. but not many I could think of that could be categorised as Americana when suddenly one of my favourite sibling bands came to mind – The Roches. Consisting of three sisters, Maggie, Terre (pronounced Terry – I know that because I asked their Mom) and Suzzy (rhymes with fuzzy – confirmation from the same source). As a trio they released a dozen excellent albums between 1979 and 2007. There were also solo albums from Suzzy and Terre and a couple of albums by Suzzy and Maggie as a duo before unfortunately the latter died in 2017.
Suzzy is part of the extended Wainwright-McGarrigle-Roach family as she had a relationship with Loudon Wainwright III which resulted in a daughter, Lucy Wainwright Roche being born in 1981. The mother/daughter duo has produced three fine albums, the latest of which ‘I Can Still Hear You’ was released late last year and is superb. Don’t take my word for it – you can read an excellent review from Tim Newby who gave it 9 out of 10 on this very website. Sibling harmonies are always something special – mother and daughter harmonies can be wonderful too as Suzzy and Lucy prove again and again on ‘I Can Still Hear You’.
