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For the past 22 years, on Friday evenings in May and June, singer Terre Roche has hosted the Sunset Singing Circle, a series of free outdoor singalongs staged in Battery Park City and sponsored by the Battery Park City Authority. With a half-dozen musicians by her side, Roche leads crowds of 50 to 100 people singing everything from “Red River Valley” and “Hey Jude” to “Jolene” and ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”
As the Roches, Terre performed with her sisters, Suzzy and Maggie from the 1970s until 2011. At age 71, she's still recording new music, and she’ll introduce her latest album, “Inner Adult,” at a May 20 show at City Winery. But the Sunset Singing Circle holds a special place in her heart. She spoke with Downtown Post NYC about its history, format and how it’s evolved.
Q: How did the Sunset Singing Circle start?
A: My group, The Roches, used to do Christmas caroling every year at the Battery Park City tree-lighting. The summer after 9/11, members of the community wanted a singalong as their first communal event as they emerged from the trauma of what had happened. So I got a call asking, “Would you do this?” and I said, “I don’t really know how to run a singalong. But I know lots of folk singers; I can find you someone.” And they said, “No, the community knows you because of the tree-lighting. We want you to lead this thing.”
Now The Roches, we did our own songs; we didn’t do covers or folk songs. But I had a student who’d just started to study guitar with me the week of 9/11, Marian Wilson, and she said she’d help. I gave her Woody Guthrie's biography to read, and I read Pete Seeger's autobiography so we could get up to speed. The very first event, in 2002, was a cold day in May, and this little band of 12 to 15 showed up.
When I was first asked to do this, I was almost a little embarrassed. At that point, I was in a group that did concerts with 1,000 people in the audience! So at first I thought, with the Singing Circle, “I hope none of my friends see me.” But now it’s my favorite gig.
Q: How do you decide what songs to sing?
A: The first year we only had about 12 songs. I put lyrics on a big poster board and Marian held it up. I was sure I was going to get fired! But gradually people would suggest things: “Can we do this one, can we do that one?” So we began to collect songs. They weren’t all necessarily folk songs; they were just stuff people wanted to sing. And I’d gauge which ones worked well. At one point, we put an Adele song in, but nobody sang along. The problem was, it became a performance, and I try to steer away from that.
Now we have a book of about 150 songs and we hand out copies so everyone in the audience has the lyrics. The way we run it, people call out the songs from the book that they want to sing. We don’t decide, “Oh we’re going to do that one" — though we finish with the same song, “Goodnight Irene,” every time.
Q: Your audience is a real mix of locals, passersby, tourists, baby boomers, families and young people. How do people find out about it?
A: There’s a lot of word of mouth at this point. We post the dates on Facebook, and a lot of people say, “Oh, I’m going to be in New York, so I’m coming!” It’s more international than I would have expected. We had one person from China who sang “Red River Valley” in Chinese.
We have a couple of songs for little kids if they request it, like “Baa Baa Black Sheep.” But the Singing Circle is not geared toward little kids and I think that’s good. I think it’s good for children to be around adults singing like it’s a normal, natural thing, where adults are making music and kids watch and listen. Then they’re maybe more inclined to think, “Oh, maybe I’d want to do this.”
Q: Who are the people who play with you?
A: At first it was just me and Marian playing guitar, but then other people started showing up. Richard Sadowsky, who plays the 12-string guitar, lives downtown and he knows folk music. He’d email me and say, “There’s a couple more verses to ‘This Land Is Your Land.’” He really got me up to speed. Lisa and Lori Brigantino, they’re sisters, both multi-instrumentalists; Lisa usually plays the banjo and Lori the accordion, and they’re great harmony singers. Lisa first came about 10 years ago. She sat down with a banjo and I noticed she didn’t need to look at any chords. She has an amazing ear and knew all the songs. Her husband Tom Millioto plays classical guitar. And Michael Gilroy plays guitar; I met him when I was walking on 14th Street. He pulled up driving a UPS truck and said, “Hey Terre, I’m coming to the Singing Circle!” Colin Taber on guitar is our newest addition, and multi-instrumentalist Marlon Cherry sometimes shows up with a djembe drum.
Over the years it’s gotten to sound really good because all these people have put in time and come every year. People ask me, “What’s the name of the band?” because it sounds like a band. Richard Sadowsky calls us The Terretts. But we don’t rehearse. The rehearsals are just 22 years of playing together. I get paid by the Battery Park City Authority. It would be great if they got paid too, but they just do it because they love it.
Q: Can anyone bring an instrument to play along?
A: We don’t let everyone stand up with us. We’re not going to stop and teach you the chords. It’s not about that. And there are no electronics allowed, no amplifiers. But it’s a great place for people to sit in the audience with their instruments and practice. I have guitar students who bring their guitars and they sit in the audience playing along with the group.
Q: Did you do the Singing Circle during the pandemic?
A: They asked me to do a virtual singing circle in 2020 when everyone was on lockdown in their apartments. So I learned to use the O-rings and things people use to film themselves, and I’d send two or three taped songs a week, and talk into the camera, and people could sing along from home.
But the funniest one was the first event in person coming out of the pandemic. We sang with masks on, standing up, because everything was socially distanced. It was the only year I had a microphone and my guitar was plugged in. We have a tradition where we always open the first Singing Circle each year with “Red River Valley.” But that year I decided to do “Here Comes the Sun,” because, like the song says, it had been a long, cold, lonely winter. At that time we were holding the Singing Circle in Wagner Park; my back was to the river and people could see the Statue of Liberty behind me.
All of a sudden I felt a drop of rain on my head. This big, dark hailstorm was coming across the river. The next thing you know, as we’re singing “Here Comes the Sun,” everyone is diving for cover. I unplugged my guitar so I wouldn’t get electrocuted. We all ran to wherever we could until the storm passed. But everyone came back. It had been so long since you could go out and sing with people, everyone was like, “I’m not going to let a hailstorm stop me from doing this.” Now we hold them at the Irish Hunger Memorial, where there’s shelter from rain. And I’m never going to open with “Here Comes the Sun” again.
SIDEBAR
The Sunset Singing Circle will take place on Fridays from May 10 to June 28 with the exception of June 21. Place: The Irish Hunger Memorial (Vesey Street and North End Avenue in Battery Park City). Time: 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m
— Beth Harpaz
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