About 10 years ago, Canadian musicians Amy Lou Keeler, and Lisa Maria carpooled to a festival where each of them were scheduled to perform. By the end of that road trip, they had decided to start working together, and the duo Mama’s Broke was created.
Their first album, Count the Wicked was self-released in 2017 and went on to wine the Ensemble of the Year Award at the Canadian Folk Music Awards.
We first got to know Mama's Broke in 2022 when they joined us for a JPR Live Session following the release of their second album, Narrow Line. The record was nominated for a Juno award for Traditional Roots Album of the Year.
Keeler and Maria are both singers and multi-instrumentalists who play a variety of stringed instruments as well as the shruti box, which produces a deep, droning sound. The result is a sound rooted in Appalachian traditions but infused with the textures of Eastern European folk music.
Their voices are equally distinctive—and remarkably complementary. Their gorgeous harmonies bring to mind duos like Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls or Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. Like those artists, Keeler and Maria have developed such a deep musical kinship that, at times, their two voices seem to become one.
Sometimes described as “gothic folk,” Mama’s Broke writes about the struggles that are part of ordinary life without offering easy answers. Their songs aren’t overtly political and there’s a deep sense of empathy running through them—a recognition that hardship, uncertainty and loss are simply part of the human experience.
Mama’s Broke is back with a new album, Reunion. Although they weren’t exactly apart, they spent much of the past several years on the road. The album’s title speaks to the long gap between releases, but also to something larger — the hope that, in an increasingly divided world, we can still find our way back to one another.
While Mama’s Broke is generally a duo, they expanded for this studio album, adding pedal-steel guitar on the track Old Fashioned Love Song, and are joined by bassist Paul Kowert on several other tunes.
With the hope of bringing people together, Keeler and Maria have suggested that Reunion is best heard in a roomful of people, rather than on a screen. Folks in our region will have a couple of chances to do just that.
Mama’s Broke performs at Fry Family Farm in Medford on September 24th, and then at the Sisters Folk Festival in Sisters, Oregon during the weekend of September 25th-27th.
Join us as we unwrap the beauty and hope of Reunion on Open Air — Weekdays 9am-3pm — on the JPR’s Rhythm and News Service.
