I Can Still Hear You, the new single and title track from mother and daughter partnership Suzzy Roche and Lucy Wainwright Roche has that classic-song magic written all over it. Taken from their forthcoming album, this first offering really does set the bar high. Of the single, Suzzy notes that Lucy’s song was written in the dark days of the shutdown and that has a way of inviting people in.
There is an undeniable inviting warmth to this lead single and producer Jordan Brooke Hamlin clearly has an understanding of how the chemistry of this duo best works as she places them front and centre with the music complimenting two incredible voices on a song that shines so brightly.
While recording albums at home may soon be sounding cliché, in this instance, maybe it was a positive twist of fate that just a week or so into recording in Nashville, COVID forced the duo to return to their respective homes in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Rather than delay, they forged on with Suzzy crediting Lucy, Jordan, Helen Vaskevitch (assistant engineer), Stewart Lerman (who wound up mixing the record) and Dick Connette (StorySound Records) with keeping the project going. “Although this wasn’t the plan we originally made, and although it was trying at times,” Lucy shares, “we made it work and I actually think this is my favourite of our duo recordings.”
After hearing this title track, it’s hard not to agree, but if the rest of this album is anywhere near as good as this title track then this may well be their best yet. I Can Still Hear You is also our Song of the Day.
Suzzy Roche on the album I Can Still Hear You
My sister Maggie died on the night that Trump was inaugurated. The next day was the Women’s march in Washington. My mother died four months later. We had the #metoo movement, we watched the world spin crazily into lies and mistrust. Racist remarks became normalized, hate speech run of the mill. I’m a middle-aged white lady artist, so what can I do? Sit in my room and write. I’ve never felt particularly essential, but even less so in the face of all this. After a lifetime of making records, I could make a good argument for laying down my guitar. But the nature of creating something out of nothing is that the process happens no matter what you do, seemingly outside of your control. After I wrote a bunch of songs, I narrowed them down as a general feeling began to emerge, and other songs popped up as possible companions for this collection with Lucy.
We began making I Can Still Hear You in Nashville two weeks before the pandemic hit. Within days of coming back to NYC, all our gigs were cancelled, and the city was shut down. Lucy and I set up makeshift recording studios in our bedrooms, Lucy in Brooklyn, me in Manhattan, and Jordan Hamlin, our producer, was in Nashville. We kept going, exchanging tracks electronically, but it was bleak. So many times, I felt like giving up, but thanks to Lucy, Jordan, Helen Vaskevitch (assistant engineer) and Stewart Lerman (who wound up mixing the record) and Dick Connette (StorySound Records) we all kept going.
Recorded from their New York City homes during the quarantine, this 11-track album (out on October 30th) showcases soul-searching, thought-provoking originals and perfectly chosen covers, along with guest appearances by Amy Ray and Emily Salier of the Indigo Girls.
I Can Still Hear You marks the third collaboration between Suzzy and Lucy, following 2013’s award-winning Fairytale and Myth and 2016’s acclaimed album, Mud & Apples.
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Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez