The terms ‘gothic folk’ and ‘dark folk’, often used interchangeably, could be said to be redundant. This is particularly true of North American strands of folk music, where themes of death, religious guilt, the unheimlich and the abhuman are so ubiquitous as to be practically genre-defining. Folk music – or at least the type of folk music that is not overtly political – has been a largely gothic mode of expression since Dock Boggs sang O Death nearly a hundred years ago. It persists for a number of reasons. Where do we go to learn about death and grief and loss? We go to the stories told by those who went before us. We go to the oral tradition. And what else do we find there? Fear, and the spine-tingling comfort of fear when it is shared and experienced through the prism of art. Gothic folk music provides a framework for looking at the unknown, at what lies beyond. At its best, it can render the unknown delicious and often joyous.
Mama’s Broke understand this. The Nova Scotia duo (Amy Lou Keeler and Lisa Maria, both of whom sing and play multiple instruments) write songs that sound simultaneously as if they come from the oral tradition and from the dark parts of the human subconscious. Their take on gothic is not limited to the American variety. Appalachian banjo tunes rub shoulders with melodies from the eastern European tradition; Anglo-American balladry is embellished by flourishes that sound like they could come from Breton or Québécois music. 2022’s Narrow Line, their second album, cemented this winning formula, combining stirring instrumental passages with beautiful vocal harmonics.
Their third album is called Reunion, a title that reflects the four-year gap between recordings. But on first listen it seems like the duo never went away. Broadly speaking, the sound here is a continuation of everything that made Narrow Line such a vital and impressive work. Listen to The Nameless, for example: a drone like a muffled foghorn, a darkly sweet, high harmony, some delicate banjo. But listen closer, and the lyrics present a chilling update of the gothic template: a tale of the sort of violent act against women that should have been confined to history but is sadly still relevant. And this is where Mama’s Broke are so impressive: earlier I implied that gothic folk music is not political, but these songs prove that it can be, that perhaps it is political by necessity. Lead single Heaven is gentle and subtle on the surface but tells a pertinent story of the nature of economic inequality and the hardships of labour. The closest comparison might be Time (The Revelator)-era Gillian Welch – high praise indeed, though not entirely unexpected given that the album features contributions from Paul Kowert, who also played bass with Welch and Rawlings (Poor David’s Almanack, Nashville Obsolete).
The Gillian Welch comparisons are audible in the opening track, Failing, where the sparseness of the arrangement doesn’t negate the song’s insistent melodic drive. The vocals too have the resonant and almost soulful depth that help make Welch such a compelling performer. Build It Up is sprightly and tender: with just fiddle, banjo and voice, the pair create a finely-drawn musical landscape that canters along, pulling everything towards the rallying-cry of its chorus. Like much of the album, it creates a positive message out of its ostensibly dark raw materials, an appeal to humanity’s better nature in the face of a world facing unprecedented struggle. A sense of community can be a big step towards societal change, and music can play a huge part in creating that sense of community.
Alongside the statements of positivity are the more ambiguous songs, the ones that lean most heavily into what we generally conceive of as gothic folk. Notable among these songs are the haunting All Alone with its wailing fiddle and the brief instrumental The Forsaken Lover, a tense combination of high, scattershot fiddle and crisp, dry banjo licks. The short, sharp Dig Deep and Win Wisely, another evocative instrumental, has an almost liquid flow to it. Fifolet Waltz – the title refers to the natural or possibly supernatural wisp-like light that is said to wander the Louisiana swamps – is a lesson in how traditional instruments and structures can create weird atmospherics, while on Bridges, an initial droning note creates a rich patina, before the song unfolds with a combination of slow grace, barely concealed violence and an alluring sense of mystery. Structure seems to implode in an impressionistic flowering of bowed strings, before the vocal melody kicks back in in the final moments, softer and more minimal than before.
Wildflowers is a stunningly beautiful, lyrically enigmatic ballad with a deceptively simple acoustic guitar at its heart. It builds into a passionate and at times angry cry of grief at the state of the natural world and the way man has mistreated it. Old Fashioned Love Song does exactly what its title implies, and a little bit more: the sense of country and western nostalgia is ramped up by Philippe Bronchtein’s pedal steel, while the lyrics manage to be both sincere and cutely self-reflexive.
The band have said that the music is ‘the feeling of the time,’ and while that statement can be read as specific to the individual moods that are conjured at various points on Reunion, it could also be a general observation about all music that exists in the face of a problematic society. Here it is most pertinent in the album’s closing track, No Great Reunion. Here the duo combine the tropes of religious language and eerie droning music in a way that can’t help but bring to mind apocalyptic thoughts. There’s an Old Testament harshness to the way the song judges those who have abused positions of power – ‘Have no forgiveness for our rulers’ – but for everyone else there is compassion. It is the perfect snapshot of the Mama’s Broke musical philosophy: songs that touch on the darkest aspects of human life with openness and admirable musical originality. Reunion is an album that looks into and through the darkness, and sees something weird and joyous and worth saving.
Reunion (August 28th, 2026) Free Dirt Records/Forward Music Group
Pre-Order Reunion: https://mamasbroke.bandcamp.com/album/reunion