Bellingham’s New Prospect Theatre (NPT) recently hosted Mama’s Broke in a show that took the audience on a musical journey around the world. Opening their fall 2024 tour with a sold-out show in the NPT’s acoustically pristine Lucas Hicks Auditorium, the Halifax, Canada-based duo effortlessly interwove easy banter and stellar musicianship.

Mama’s Broke is Amy Lou Keeler (guitar, banjo, fiddlesticks, vocals) and Lisa Maria (guitar, mandolin, violin, foot-stomps, vocals). Their music, honed by nearly a decade on the road is a unique combination of Quebecois, folk, blues, punk, bluegrass, Celtic, Balkan, and doom metal (yes, doom metal, you read that right!), delivered with a firm commitment to challenging cultural and musical borders. Indeed, Mama’s Broke has toured across the globe: their native Canada, throughout Europe, across the USA, the UK, Ireland, and Indonesia.

Mama’s Broke music far surpasses the sum of two parts cliches. As Lisa and Amy took the sparse stage on Sept. 18, two simple straight-back chairs, a pair of vintage microphones, and various instruments within easy reach, their gorgeous harmonizing signaled we were in for beautiful, and unique, evening. Alternating between violin/fiddle, mandolin, and augmented by foot-pounding percussion, Lisa provides counterpoint to Amy’s lead vocals and steady rhythm guitar and banjo work.

In a recent interview with Bluegrass Beyond Borders, Amy noted that, “Our sound has been described to us as ‘folk without borders’…which I think fits, since both of us have a lot of influences from around the world, and definitely some traditional bluegrass influences.” Indeed, the duo met on the road and have been following that pull ever since. Lisa recalls, “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.” With two full albums — Count the Wicked (2017) and Narrow Line (2022), and several EPs and singles — the road looks to go on for a while longer.

Stream Mama’s Broke 2022 album Narrow Line on Spotify:

As the auditorium’s lights dimmed, the first set began with an a cappella melody from backstage. Emerging from the shadows Lisa and Amy took their seats onstage and began to play, the traditional combined with contemporary folk sensibilities left the impression of years spent on the road absorbing and internalizing music from around the world. Mixing new, old, and cover songs, Lisa and Amy took us on an international musical tour (“I wrote this song when I was busking in Macedonia”). Another song, about the apocalypse, was inspired while driving across Lake Pontchartrain outside New Orleans, endlessly surrounded by water and dead or dying trees… hence the doomsday subject matter.

Watch Mama’s Broke perform “Count the Wicked” live on YouTube:

The second set opened with a lovely Osborne Brothers cover, confirming Mama’s Broke bluegrass bona fides (Amy is an avowed Ralph Stanley fan). Highlights included “October’s Lament,” a song about sobriety that opened with a mournful violin, segued into a stunning a cappella vocal section before closing again with Lisa’s understated violin. A number of other tunes included fiddle sticks, with Amy lightly keeping rhythm using chop sticks (borrowed from a nearby Thai restaurant) on Lisa’s violin as she played.

Stories from the road, a warm and intimate atmosphere, and compelling musicianship made the evening with Mama’s Broke pass by too quickly. As the duo stood to accept their well-earned final ovation, they briefly hugged, an act of companionship that seemed to sum up the entire evening — that we all had been embraced by the musicians and their music.

Mama’s Broke will be touring across the USA ending up on the East Coast in October.

Check out their schedule (and music) on their website here.

Here are some more photos of Mama’s Broke performing at Bellingham’s New Prospect Theatre on Sept. 18, 2024. All photos courtesy of and copyright Mark Caicedo.