If, when first listening to Mama’s Broke, you can’t stop imaging the open road—a single lane carved through the spine of the Appalachian songbook; an artery of tarmac taking hard corners over harmonies soft as wheat fields—your imagination’s got the right instinct: The duo’s origin story began on a stretch of highway between Montreal and Halifax, with Charlie Parr in the tape deck: “We were talking about what grabs us in music, was a huge topic of conversation: Like, dynamic and push and pull and the things that we’re drawn to—the scales, even. Melody lines and stuff like that. And we were just hitting the same mark every single time,” says Amy Lou Keeler, one half of the DIY-folk duo. “Someone that felt and thought the same way that I did about music: It was a first,” Lisa Maria, the duo’s other half, adds.
In a way, they’ve been driving ever since: A weather-proofed, road-seasoned act that’s known for endless touring, playing everywhere from house shows in Washington, DC (where their label is based) to festivals in Europe, honing a sound that brings everything from Lucinda Williams to lost-to-time American roots music to mind.
Lately, though, Mama’s Broke has made a left turn onto the main highway—or rather, more of us than ever are basking in the glow of the band’s tail lights, as the duo was an out-of-left field nominee in the 2023 Junos Traditional Roots Album of the Year category (the mainstream music award doesn’t often list indie acts, or East Coast ones, and this band is both). Arguably more impressively, they also performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk series in March. The producer “was like: ‘I just want you to pretend like you’re playing a show. I know you guys are really good at playing nice, warm, intimate shows and bantering with the crowd; you’re super comfortable. You’re professionals,’” Keeler recalls of the Tiny Desk experience. “We’re like: ‘this is not super intimate. Like. It’s nerve wracking, to potentially 7 million [viewers]. It’s like the Ed Sullivan Show’.” (In the end, they nailed it, nerves be damned; see below for proof.)
Now, the act is playing two hometown shows—none that’ll feel like an Ed Sullivan appearance, but ones that are exciting all the same: Their first stopovers here since the Juno nominee and Tiny Desk appearance. You can see them supporting their most recent album, the ancient-influenced yet modern-minded Narrow Line, at Dartmouth’s Sanctuary Arts Space (100 Ochterloney Street) at 8pm on June 14 or at Full Circle Festival on Saturday, June 17 at 8pm in Newport.
And, as relief for fans new and old, the recent success means that Mama’s Broke won’t be putting it in park just yet: “It did feel a bit like you’re in a small room, and more and more people come into the room, and then you step out and you’re in a slightly larger room and you just get to breathe,” Keeler says when asked what the recognition gives them. “I mean, it’s always just really nice that people hear the music and it’s like, the more people the better, obviously.”
This article appears in Jun 1-30, 2023.
