The Roches' Terre Roche Shares New Song 'Kin Ya See That Sun'

Singer-songwriter Terre Roche of the legendary NYC sibling folk trio, The Roches has announced the release of Kin Ya See That Sun, a collection of previously unreleased live recordings and original songs written and performed by Terre and her late sister Maggie. The 15-track album arrives digitally Friday, October 21.

Kin Ya See That Sun will also be released as a limited-edition book featuring illustrations by Terre, song lyrics, rare photographs, exclusive new interview excerpts, and additional background about the project (all book purchases receive a digital download of the album). The book is available for pre-order now.

Kin Ya See That Sun is heralded by today's premiere of the title track which is the first song Terre and Maggie wrote together as children.

"I was 12 years old, and Maggie was 13," says Terre Roche. "We were just learning to play guitar. We'd learned off a PBS special called 'Folk Guitar with Laura Weber' - I've always regretted that I never wrote Laura Weber a fan letter, and sadly she has passed away, but she taught us a bunch of guitar chords, strums and very cool folk songs we had never heard before. Maggie gave me this set of lyrics and I wrote the music for it. Though we had never traveled beyond our New Jersey home we had a longing to go out West."

Terre and Maggie Roche grew up in Park Ridge, NJ where they first fell in love with folk music before setting off to perform their own songs at college campuses around the country. The sisters toured the US by themselves, for more than two years, with 17-year-old Terre completing her senior year of high school by doing homework and exams while on the road.

Paul Simon met them when they crashed his songwriting class at NYU. He would come to produce part of their album Seductive Reasoning and enlist them to sing background harmonies on his blockbuster third solo album, 1973's There Goes Rhymin' Simon. With his support, the sisters made their official debut with 1975's now-classic Seductive Reasoning, featuring production from Simon and the renowned Paul Samwell-Smith (Cat Stevens, Carly Simon, Jethro Tull), with backing by the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.

Terre and Maggie were soon joined by youngest sister Suzzy as The Roches. Hailed for their irreverent, beguiling, and original approach to traditional folk songcraft and three-part harmony, the trio made a spectacular debut with 1979's The Roches (produced by Robert Fripp, with whom Terre also collaborated on that same year's milestone LP, Exposure), followed by a long series of recordings, tours, and TV appearances (including a memorable 1979 performance on Saturday Night Live).

Sadly, Maggie Roche passed away in 2017. Two years later, out of the blue, Terre received live recordings from two different people who had recorded her and Maggie performing in 1975 and 2000. Here were many of the songs from Seductive Reasoning as they were originally arranged, just two voices and two guitars.

Highlights include powerful performances of fan favorites like "Telephone Bill" and "Damned Old Dog" (recorded during a 1975 promotional tour) and the classic "If You Emptied Out All Your Pockets You Could Not Make the Change," the latter recorded during Terre and Maggie's acclaimed run of concerts in 2000. All live recordings featured on Kin Ya See That Sun were restored and mastered by Thomas Millioto.

Kin Ya See That Sun further collects never-before-heard songs such as "The Colleges" and "Apostrophe to the Wind" alongside exclusive outtakes from Seductive Reasoning including "Pretty and High" (later re-recorded for The Roches' eponymous debut) and the previously unreleased gem, "Moonruns," both produced in London by Samwell-Smith.

"Working on this project has brought me back in touch with the deep spiritual connection Maggie and I shared at a point in our lives," Terre Roche says. "You can hear that connection in these songs. Hearing the music we made together amazes me after all these years. And I feel her gratitude toward me, wherever she is now, for shepherding the songs in their pure form through some tough terrain and on out into the light for everyone to hear."

Terre will celebrate the release of Kin Ya See That Sun with a special performance at New York City's City Winery on October 18 at 7:30pm. Tickets are on sale now.

Listen to the new single here:

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