First Music, Now Words

You can blame the spelling of Suzzy Roche's first name on her grandfather. Writing Suzy on a Christmas stocking, he put in an extra Z, and so from childhood on she has been Suzzy, pronounced to rhyme with Fuzzy.

Roche, with her sisters Maggie and Terre, formed The Roches, a trio that began singing and recording in the 1970s, when Roche was still in her teens. They started in Greenwich Village, then migrated uptown to venues like Carnegie Hall. They sang throughout the United States and Europe, performing with names like Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt, and Phillip Glass. On television they appeared on a number of programs, among them the Tonight Show in the days when Johnny Carson was the host, the Today Show, and a Tracey Ullman HBO special.

Now, Roche is looking at the music business in a different way. She has written a novel, Wayward Saints, about a singer in an almost-famous rock band who returns to give a hometown concert at the high school she attended.

Roche will talk about the book and sing some of her own songs at Valley Regional High School in Deep River at 4 p.m. this Saturday, Feb. 4. The performance, sponsored by the Essex Library, is free and open to the public.

The Roches were more than a trendy fad, less than a coast-to-coast craze, but they had staying power, performing for more than 20 years with 11 albums to their credit. Roche did two more albums with sister Maggie and also two on her own. She said the album she is most proud of is Zero Church, a collection personal prayers that she did with her sister Maggie. As a solo artist, her albums include Songs of An Unmarried House & Mother, Greenwich Village, USA, and Holy Smokes.

At her upcoming book event, Roche wants to have a dialogue with the audience and already has the answer to one question ready: Her heroine, rocker Mary Saint, is not a thinly veiled version of herself.

"I think people expect it is my life, but I was very clear that I did not want to do that. Writing a memoir is a very slippery thing. I prefer imagining ideas and concepts to telling things that actually happened," she says.

Roche, unlike her character Mary, never returned to sing at her own high school in Park Ridge, New Jersey, though she says she was not the only member of her high school class to make it in the world of entertainment. James Gandolfini, Jr., best known for his role as Tony Soprano, was also a classmate.

Still, she did get some music business archetypes into her novel-the slick promoter, the self-absorbed rock idol, the wannabe stars. But Roche said the heart of the novel is about exploring the relationship between Mary and her mother Jean. And she adds it is also a story about faith, and the ways in which intense belief affects people.

"That's a subject I am interested in, and the two main characters have different interactions with faith and I wanted to explore that a bit," she says.

As she started to write, Roche says, she envisioned the end of the book but couldn't quite see how she was going to get there.

"I knew I was going to end with the concert at the high school, but I needed to fill up 270 pages before that."

But then, as she wrote, the characters came alive.

"They dictated what happened," Roche says, "and now I can't get them out of my head."

Although this is the first book Roche has had published, it is not the first one she has written. She has a children's book scheduled to come out next year, So You Want to be in a Band, and she says this one is not autobiographical either, even though it is about three sisters putting together a group. In fact, it was after an agent had sold the children's book to a publisher that Roche decided, as long as she had a literary representative, she might as well try to write the novel she had running through her head.

Roche credits Meg Wolitzer, author of such bestselling novels as The Ten Year Nap and The Uncoupling, with keeping her on track as she wrote Wayward Saints. The two met some years ago when they cooperated on a project for public radio that involved putting the openings of famous books to music.

"I encouraged Suzzy a great deal with her novel because it was clear to me what a perceptive and unusual writer she was," Wolitzer notes.

Roche puts it more simply: "I just say I went to Wolitzer University," she says.

The Roches, who were known for their close harmonies and imaginative lyrics, formally disbanded in 1997, but still occasionally perform together. Recently Roche has performed with another family member, her daughter Lucy Wainwright Roche. The two sing a duet called "Wayward Saints," named after Roche's novel.

Lucy, whose father is singer Loudon Wainwright III, is also a performer, sometimes appearing with her half brother, Rufus Wainwright. Rufus is the son of Wainwright's late wife, Canadian singer Kate McGarrigle of the McGarrigle Sisters. The intertwined family and musical relationships inspired one recent New York Review of Books blog to liken the Roche-Wainwright-McGarrigle connection to the extended family of country music royalty, the Carter-Cashes.

At The Roches concerts these days, Roche says she appreciates seeing those who have followed her career over the years. Often they ask to hear a Roche trademark, the "Hammond Song."

"It's amazing to me. They bring their children to hear us. We were never huge stars, but we did connect with a certain amount of people. We sold out theaters. We had an audience. Now, it's like having lifelong friends," she says.

Today, The Roches perform in different kinds of venues than in the clubs where they started out.

"We do shows where the conditions are right now," she says "nice theater, nice piano, nice comfortable seats; our fans are older now. You can relax without having your feet stick to the floor."

Roche is already beginning to think about a second novel. But don't look for any musicians in her next work. She envisions a new set of characters, all of whom have nothing to do with the world of performing. And she anticipates, albeit with some trepidation, her upcoming book tour for Wayward Saints.

"I am excited to read and sing for people. It's only a good thing, nothing but joy," she says.

Suzzy Roche will read from her new book, sing, and answer questions at Valley Regional High School, 256 Kelsey Hill Road, Deep River, on Saturday, Feb. 4 at 4 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. For more information and to register, call the Essex Library at 860-767-1560.