Mama’s Broke

Standard Theatre Seated

For more than a decade, Mama’s Broke, the Canadian duo of Amy Lou Keeler and Lisa Maria, have forged a style carried across landscapes rather than tied to one. Their forthcoming 12-song LP Reunion, out August 28, follows years in near-constant motion, bringing their folk-without-borders approach to small clubs, DIY spaces, and everywhere in between. Winners of the Canadian Folk Music Award for Ensemble of the Year for their 2017 debut Count the Wicked, their music is rooted in long days playing for passing crowds and traveling by foot, as well as in the deep wells of folk lineage they’ve tapped into across Eastern Canada, Appalachia, Ireland, and beyond. Their sound doesn’t belong to any one place so much as it passes through them, grounded in the traditions that shaped it.

That foundation was built long before stages and studio sessions, in traveling communities where music functioned as both currency and connection. The two met within a global network of musicians funding their way through shared songs, carrying only what they could as they traded melodies and stories across the miles. Playing for hours at a time on the street demanded a repertoire that could hold attention and sustain emotion, drawing them deep into traditional material and the discipline of close harmony. Over time, the songs became a common language, connecting what came before with the music they were
making together.

Building on their JUNO-nominated album Narrow Line (2022), Reunion reflects a world coming apart in plain sight, tracing fractured communities, the erosion of shared ground, and the growing awareness that the systems we were taught to trust no longer hold or deliver the promises they were meant to keep. The songs don’t preach or prescribe; they reflect, holding up a mirror and leaving space for something else to take shape.

Recorded just outside Nashville in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, Reunion features subtle contributions from bassist Paul Kowert (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings) and others, adding depth without pulling focus from the record’s acoustic core. At its heart, Mama’s Broke remains what it has always been: two voices, intertwined, both fragile and enduring. Reunion asks what it means to make something that lasts: not a place you’re from, or even a place you return to, but what you make together, and how long it lasts, if you tend to it.

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