Back in 2019, we reviewed Count the Wicked, the debut album from Canadian folk duo Mama’s Broke featuring Lisa Maria and Amy Lou Keeler. The album featured in our Best Albums of 2019 and in Danny Neill’s Top Ten albums of that year. In his album review, he says “The harmonies feel like the purest, clean spring water and the playing has an ebb and flow, blowing hard and gentle like changes in the breeze.” He also declared that “debut albums as strong as this should not be ignored.”
Today they are releasing their new single Just Pick One (also our single of the week) which accompanies the announcement of their long-awaited sophomore album Narrow Line (coming May 13, 2022, on Free Dirt Records). Written in Amy’s uninsulated cabin in rural Nova Scotia at the height of the lockdown, the brooding opening introduces those spine-tingling close-harmony duets once again before they let the light in with some beautiful steel and fiddle. It’s an exceptional and strong lead single that underpins all that is great about this fascinating duo who have been relentlessly touring for the past eight years. That near-constant state of transience has defined not just their sound but also their lives which have been shaped by travelling communities that are focused on music and protest. That very DIY culture and activism shines through in their music and from where we are stand in the world today, that makes them all the more endearing. Shine on.
The accompanying press expands on their travelling roots and how they first met – As Lisa remembers it, “Amy was driving her old Mercedes from Montreal to Nova Scotia and I was looking for a ride. We spent the 17 hours in the car talking almost exclusively about music. By the time we reached Halifax we started playing together, and within a week or two became a band.” Both coming out of travelling communities that are focused on music and protest, the two owe the way in which they move through the world to the integrated and self-sustaining nature of DIY culture and activism. It was a busy life that took them on a roundabout annual touring schedule running between Canada, the United States, Ireland, the UK, and Europe. In each country, they built grassroots DIY communities to support their music, or moved along the pathways of communal organizing that sustained other touring artists. In Ireland, they picked up a love of old Celtic balladry from their friends in Dublin. In Appalachia, they learned new tunes and jammed at Clifftop, the Appalachian String Band Music Festival. In Canada, they found the sea-salt folk songs of Nova Scotia’s traditions (Amy hails from the province) and snapped up old LPs of Ukrainian folk music from Lisa’s grandfather’s collection. Each step of their travels brought new music and new influences to them and a chance to connect on a direct level with communities.
This is an album that’s sure to find its way to your heart. Needless to say, they will be touring the UK in the summer, news of which we will be bringing you soon. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to pre-order Narrow Line here: https://lnk.to/narrowline
More here: https://mamasbroke.ca/