Believe It or Not, Touring the Country at 17 Isn't the Beginning of Her Story
It seems ridiculous now, imagining parents of a 17 year old agreeing to send her on a road trip across the country with her 18 year old sister to perform their music at small venues, mostly on college campuses.
Terre Roche image and quote for podcast cover art
But that's exactly what Terre & Maggie Roche's parents did. Terre's father even met with the principal of her high school where she was supposed to be for her senior year and negotiated her school work and exams to be completed in between their 6-week touring dates.
Terre spent her 18th birthday in Spearfish, South Dakota. They were contracted for a performance in Missoula, Montana, next, and their car broke down in Billings, Montana. They grabbed their gear and hitchhiked to Missoula so they wouldn't break their contract.
The biggest surprise to me was when Terre said being a musician was never her big dream, she sort of fell into the job.
As pre-teens, Terre and her sister had been watching a video series to learn to play guitar, and made up new lyrics to a popular song for a local politician's candidacy and fundraising party. A variety of other candidates were in attendance and asked them to do the same thing for their parties. Eventually they were performing for the Governor's parties and caught the attention of a touring company.
Ready to listen in? Great. Here are some links we promised for you:
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Down the Dream (from the Seductive Reasoning album)
Elana James, Hot Club of Cow Town, Montana-based band, Terre Roche loves these guys!
From her website:
Terre Roche is a singer, songwriter, guitar player, teacher, author, innkeeper and founding member of the trio "The Roches". She has performed in many clubs and concert halls throughout the US and Europe and appeared on numerous TV shows over the course of her 45 year career.
She's a member of the band "Afro-Jersey" and co-creator with jazz pianist Garry Dial of "Us an'Them", a collection of national anthems from 16 nations. Her composition "Star of Wonder" has become a favorite repertoire piece in choirs around the world.
At the other end of the spectrum Terre shrieked her way to modest cult status as the voice on Robert Fripp's album "Exposure". She sang the role of Squeaky Fromme in John Moran's avant-garde opera "The Manson Family". Terre is the author of "Blabbermouth", a memoir about her surprising journey coming of age as a female musician in the 1970's.
She's worked with Paul Simon, Philip Glass, Linda Ronstadt, Meredith Monk, Don Was, The Muscle Shoals Swampers, Robert Fripp, Tracey Ullman, Kathy Mattea and Garry Dial among others.
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ABOUT SARAH:
"Uncovering the right stories for the right audiences so executives, leaders, public speakers, and job seekers can clearly and actively demonstrate their character, values, and vision."
In my work with coaching clients, I guide people to improve their communication using storytelling as the foundation of our work together. What I’ve realized over years of coaching and podcasting is that the majority of people don’t realize the impact of the stories they share - on their internal messages, and on the people they’re sharing them with.
My work with leaders and people who aspire to be leaders follows a similar path to the interviews on my podcast, uncovering pivotal moments in their lives and learning how to share them to connect more authentically with others, to make their presentations and speaking more engaging, to reveal patterns that have kept them stuck or moved them forward, and to improve their relationships at work and at home.
The audiobook, Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will is now available!
Included with your purchase are two bonus tracks, songs recorded by Sarah's band, Spare Change, in her living room in Montana.