PORTSMOUTH, NH – It’s always refreshing when a musical entity takes on a timeless musical style and puts a fresh spin on it. This approach is a uniquely individualistic one, even though it’s often conceived through the talents of multiple musicians.
A stellar example of this is Mama’s Broke who hail from the Canadian city of Halifax in the province of Nova Scotia. Consisting of Lisa Maria and Amy Lou Keeler, this duo plays a great brand of folk music that’s inspired in a transatlantic fashion. Folks will be able to experience this for themselves at The Press Room in Portsmouth on April 28 with Brooklyn singer-songwriter Eliza Edens starting things off at 6 p.m.
I caught up with both Maria and Keeler about how they formed their sound, performing in one-of-a-kind settings and focusing on songwriting for new material when the summer arrives.
IF YOU GO
Mama’s Broke with Eliza Edens
April 28 at The Press Room 6 p.m.
Rob Duguay: Mama’s Broke exhibits a musical style that incorporates bluegrass and Eastern European folk influences, so how did you both initially bond over this approach when you both started making music together?
Lisa Marie: I think it was quite organic. We didn’t necessarily discuss at the beginning about what genre we were trying to fit into, it’s just kind of what naturally came up.
Amy Lou Keeler: I think it sort of evolved as well over time. We both brought different elements and the both of us are passionate about traditional styles in general.
RD: That makes sense. As part of this particular project, both of you sing but Lisa, you play the fiddle, mandolin, banjo and guitar while Amy Lou plays the banjo and guitar along with fiddlesticks. Out of all those instruments, do you each have a preference and what was the first instrument the both of you learned how to play and how did it progress from there?
ALK: Lisa is definitely the multi-instrumentalist of the group, she started out playing all kinds of different things.
LM: The first instrument I actually learned was piano.
RD: How did you go from the piano to the string instruments? What made you want to make that transition?
LM: Just being drawn to the sound. I always loved the sound of fiddle music and I grew up doing the traditional style of Ottawa Valley Step Dancing that’s accompanied by traditional fiddle music. I became used to hearing the sound of it and I kind of fell in love with that as well as the mandolin and many other string instruments for that matter, I’ve always had a hard time choosing just one.
RD: Very cool. You both have performed in a variety of venues during your career as Mama’s Broke ranging from major music festivals to DIY punk houses, so what would you say is the most unique place the both of you have ever played music in?
ALK: That’s a tough one because there’s been a lot of different places. We’ve been touring all over for 10 years so there’s been so many. We played in Amsterdam once on this big tall ship and that was really cool.
LM: We’ve gone sailing all over the world.
ALK: Yeah, there’s way too many to count. We’ve played in so many different types of venues.
LM: We played in a cave once, which was pretty cool.
ALK: I don’t even remember that one.
LM: Another one that sticks out in my mind, and I can’t remember for the life of me or where it was exactly, but somewhere in Australia we played at this DIY house venue that was way up on a hill and kind of overlooking a cliff. They had a mini skate park built inside there.
ALK: Yeah, Adelaide Hill. I remember that.
RD: Oh wow, that’s incredible. When it comes to performing in your home country of Canada, are there any major differences between the audiences there and in the United States? I know people have talked about how different it is to play in Europe versus playing around North America.
ALK: In terms of audience, I don’t know if there’s much of a difference to be honest. I think it’s really city to city more so than there being a big difference between Canada and the States. It’s a little bit geographically harder to tour in Canada so we tend to spend the majority of our time touring the States just based on those driving times between cities. It’s a lot more of a distance in Canada, but the audiences are very similar. I think there’s a lot of traditional music fans in both places.
RD: After the upcoming show at The Press Room, what does Mama’s Broke have planned going into the summer? Can we expect a new album of some sort?
ALK: We’re actually going to be playing a lot of festivals in Canada over the summer, but between those and whenever we have the time in between touring this year, we’ve been writing and getting ready to record something soon. We’re just juggling between touring as much as possible and trying to write on the go.
LM: Yeah, the big theme of this summer will be songwriting and hopefully next year we’ll bring a new album.
