Kelly Hogan likes to think of her latest project, Roses for the Roches, as a way of going “door to door” to spread the love for Terre, Maggie and Suzzy Roche, the harmonizing sister trio from New Jersey whom many regard as heroines of ’70s folk.
“Once you get the Roches fever, you just want to go ringing doorbells, like ding-dong, have you heard this good s—?” said the Wisconsin-based singer who has a long history in the Chicago music scene, including collaborations with Mavis Staples, Andrew Bird and Neko Case. In the Roches tribute project, she’s joined by more local talents, including her Flat Five cohort Nora O’Connor and Sima Cunningham of Chicago indie rock band Finom.
Having covered a good swath of Chicago, including the trio’s first show at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Lincoln Square in 2017 and the Hideout in West Town last year, Roses for the Roches heads to Evanston Sunday. They’ll perform at the final day of the Evanston Folk Festival, where Hogan hopes attendees will receive her passionate sales pitch that the Roches’ works like “Hammond Song” and “Losing True” significantly shined a light on “the importance of harmony … and had such complexity in the arrangements,” she said, illuminating the dynamic that made many take notice of the Roches, including collaborators like Paul Simon, Robert Fripp and Linda Ronstadt. Though the group essentially ended in 2017 when Maggie died from breast cancer, Roses for the Roches hopes to continue giving the sisters their flowers with a new generation.
“It’s such a perfect storm of all of our favorites,” said Evanston Folk Fest talent booker Jake Samuels of the tribute group. He’s also the director of music for SPACE and additional music venues under the 16” on Center umbrella where he’s long featured the various players on those stages. “We’ve been so fortunate to have a number of touchpoints with the royal folk family known as the Roches … and to see some of our favorite songwriters and performers, like Nora, Kelly and Sima celebrate the music that’s been such a part of our SPACE story, we knew we had to have them at the folk festival.”
The two-day event, which kicks off Saturday, returns to the lakefront at Dawes Park for the third year, along with notables in the scene like headliners Indigo Girls and Trampled by Turtles, as well as Sierra Hull, Valerie June, Josh Ritter and Kathleen Edwards.
National folk icons aside, Samuels said he also wanted to “shine a light on various aspects of Chicago’s musical roots and history.” Beyond local talents playing the fest, other opportunities over the weekend include a video featurette containing archivist Joe Lauro’s footage of John Prine, Steve Goodman, Sam Cooke, Howlin’ Wolf, Curtis Mayfield and others who put Chicago on the musical map.
As well, the Saturday Chicago Public Media tent talks will include a discussion on the history of Chicago gospel music as well as the “Playing with Prine” panel, where harmonica player/keyboardist Howard Levy and drummer Angelo Varias will discuss working with the late folk legend from Illinois. The Prine-themed activities at Evanston Folk Fest (also including an aftershow at SPACE Sunday, where Prine’s album “Bruised Orange” will be played in full by special guests) come just weeks before the planned 80th birthday celebrations for the musician at the Chicago Theatre and Old Town School of Folk Music in October — and that’s all by design, said Samuels.
“Evanston Folk Fest is a product of a scene that’s existed for so long here and one that nurtured those songwriters, including arguably the greatest of all time, John Prine. So there’s always some element of John Prine in what we do, whether it’s a little quote that we hang up [on a banner] or a cover song that happens from the stage or a panel that happens in the conversation tent,” Samuels said.
Another of the scheduled panels on Sunday is “The Roches and Their Disciples” discussion, moderated by NPR’s Ann Powers, where Hogan, O’Connor and Cunningham will be joined by Suzzy’s daughter, Lucy Wainwright Roche, another performer at the Evanston Folk Festival. She’s also expected to join the Roses for the Roches set.
A few years ago, the Chicago tribute group had the chance to meet Suzzy through the members’ connections with Wainwright Roche and received her full blessing for the project. “Suzzy’s been incredibly supportive … nothing but positive and helpful,” Hogan said, adding that she will often send sheet music when needed.
Honoring these kinds of legacies is one way Evanston Folk Fest organizers strive to make the event “feel like it’s sort of been there for a long time,” said Samuels. Another way is by building on the nearly 20-year history of Evanston’s SPACE and translating the magic of the listening room into a festival model that continues to attract guests from the North Shore as well as Chicago and beyond.
“The folk fest is something to be proud of for Evanston. And I think it’s gaining attention in all the right ways of bringing world-class music to town,” said Samuels, who also lives in the North Shore suburb. He points to examples like Sierra Ferrell, who played year one in 2023 before her career took off, and the deep research the team does by going to events like the Folk Alliance International Conference to find emerging artists. All of it, he said, comes back to one founding principle of 16” on Center: “Our mission statement is really centered around creating things that we like, fostering neighborhood places, and hoping other people will like them and join us.”