MUSIC
Suzzy Roche and Lucy Wainwright Roche
When: 7 p.m.  Sept. 13
Where: Mill, 120 E. Burlington
Admission: $12 in advance/$15 day of show

By Claire Dietz
[email protected]

It’s no small feat to travel with one’s mother.

Lucy Wainwright Roche takes that feat and magnifies it into an entirely new scale, going on tour with her mother, Suzzy Roche.

The mother/daughter duo will perform at 7 p.m. Sept. 13 at the Mill, 120 E. Burlington St. They began touring together last year after recording three songs to release as a fundraiser for Wainwright Roche’s newest CD, There’s a Last Time for Everything, and found they enjoyed it too much.

“After we had recorded the songs, we liked the way they sounded and decided to keep going,” Roche said. “We worked with our friend Rob Morsberger, an incredible composer and musician who had been diagnosed with incurable brain cancer. He was nearly blind when we began working together, but he could still play beautifully. Our time in the studio with him was bittersweet. So much joy, so much sorrow. He left us with a gift — our CD, something I will always treasure, especially at this point in my life.”

The two definitely play into a tradition the Mill has established of singer/songwriters, said Andre Perry, a talent buyer at the Mill.

“The Mill tries to program across a range of genres and media, but over the years, if you looked at the calendar over the year, you would definitely see a handful of singer/songwriters,” Perry said.

Roche has had a self-described “long career,” both with family members and playing solo, but singing with her daughter really is “the cherry on top.”

“I’ve always loved working with my family,” she said. “I don’t think I ever had a burning desire to go solo even though I made two solo recordings. I just like to work, to make things up. When I write a song, I feel so lucky, and when I sing in harmony, well, that’s the best.”

While her mother has always been in the family business of making music, Wainwright Roche was more reluctant to follow suite.

“I grew up my whole life doing music, and I actually wasn’t that interested in it,” she said. “I thought that there was enough of that going on so, I went to school, and I got my bachelor’s degree in teaching, thinking I wanted to be a teacher.

“But then I went on the road with my brother as a backup singer just for fun one summer, and I loved it so much. And I sort of got it in the back of my head that I wanted to stay in this world.

Despite traveling together constantly, driving together, sharing a hotel, and sharing a stage, Wainwright Roche said it is all worth it.

“I’m usually on tour alone, and when things go wrong on tour … when you’re alone, it’s not that funny,” she said. “But when you’re with someone who you have a good time with, everything’s funnier then, and you can laugh about things much easier. It’s more fun, we have fun. It’s kind of like a treat.”