Studio Session: Mama’s Broke

Americana duo Mama’s Broke performs live on air, hosted by KGNU’s Kooter Jones. The duo, composed of Amy Lou Keeler and Lisa Maria, discusses their music journey, influences, and creative process. Mama’s Broke has been playing together for over a decade, drawing inspiration from traditional bluegrass and roots music (Interview date: 10/10/2024). 

Kooter Jones: Welcome back. We just heard a couple of tracks from our guests who are here in the studio. They are called Mama’s Broke and I’m extremely excited to announce that they have their instruments here and are going to be performing live. But first I’ll let you know the two tracks that you heard.

The first one was called “Black Rock Beach”. That one was off of the release Count the Wicked from 2017 and the last one that you heard was called “The Wreckage Done” and that one was off Narrow Line from 2022. Anyways, I’m going to go ahead and bring them on to the mic here. If you all could just introduce yourselves and say hello, and let us know what you’ll be performing for us, and we’ll go from there.

Mama’s Broke: Hi, thanks for having us. I’m Lisa, and we got Amy over here, and we’re Mama’s Broke. We thought we would kick it off with an old Osborne Brothers tune. It’s called “Send Me the Pillow That You Dream On”.

Kooter Jones: Wow, that was incredible. The harmonies between the two instruments and both of your vocal harmonies are incredible. How long have you been playing together?

Mama’s Broke: Just over 10 years now, which is crazy to say. Time has gone fast.

Kooter Jones: What inspired you all to become musicians?

Mama’s Broke: Oh, that’s hard to answer. Cause as far as back as I can remember, I’ve been singing and listening to roots music and stuff. And my dad was a musician. So I don’t really remember what inspired it. It just was a sure thing from the start, I think.

Kooter Jones: Are you able to say some of the music that you heard growing up that was inspiring for you?

Mama’s Broke: For me, Osborne Brothers, Stanley Brothers, a lot of those old family bluegrass bands were huge. Gillian Welch was somebody I listened to a lot when I was younger. Just a lot of traditional roots, blues.

Kooter Jones: Sweet, yeah. Sounds like you all are ready to play another track maybe.

Mama’s Broke: Potentially, yeah. Everything we ever play requires a different tuning. We make things hard on ourselves but I think I’m good. I think we’re gonna play the title track of our last album, it’s called Narrow Line. This tune was written as a response to a lot of the overwhelmingly awful things that were happening in the world at that time and continue to happen. And this is sort of a song that attempts to keep us sane and in a state of just getting up and taking care of ourselves and the people around us, despite all of the huge things happening in the world.

Kooter Jones: Just another incredible piece of work there. Yeah, there’s a very, in my opinion, a strong spiritual roots energy that comes along with your music. And I thought of what you mentioned about that song before you played it, with kind of the way of the world, reminded me of why I actually picked “The Wreckage Done” as a track to lead into. The lyrics were quite profound for me, and I felt that there was a lot that I could relate to on a surface level as well as a deeper level.

When I heard “just about turn away from a guilty mind, like the feckless kings that ruled us blind, so your blight”. I just thought that carries so much energy from so long ago, but it’s so relevant today. And that was the way that I was able to interpret that.

A lot of the other lyrics throughout that track made me relate my own life to the way of the world. So I was going to ask you about your creative process and where these songs come from. Is it the music that comes first to you or is it the lyrics that come first? How does that process go for you?

Mama’s Broke: It really depends on the song. I think it’s different every time. Like sometimes a lyric will come just based on an emotional reaction to something that’s happened in the world or in my own personal life or whatever. Like with “Wreckage Done”, I think certain lines came first and it was very angry. It was like the emotion came first and then the line, and then the music comes to support that. Like musically supporting that sort of anger and processing of intense emotions.

We’re very fortunate as musicians to process our heartbreak and anger through songwriting. But yeah, sometimes the melodies also come first. There’s been some songs of ours where a fiddle tune has come first and then we’ve taken the melody from the fiddle tune and then put lyrics to that melody and added a part beforehand. Yeah, it changes a lot.

Kooter Jones: Another thing too about “The Wreckage Done” – when you get to the end, to me it feels like often times we get to where we want to be, and a lot of times we’re so narrow focused and when you get there and you take a look back at all the sacrifices made, whether they’re good or bad, that can be a profound experience. That was how that song made me feel.

Mama’s Broke: That’s the beautiful thing about it. I love hearing other people’s interpretations of lyrics. While I might have a really specific thing in mind, or not always super specific, but sometimes very specific. But as lyricists, we try to keep it… not vague, but open, not so literal.

There’s not one right answer. And even over time, as I mentioned, we’ve been a band for over 10 years now. So there’s even some of our lyrics that, after playing it for so long, it’s taken on different meanings too.

Kooter Jones: Definitely. I want to just mention again that you’re listening to Mama’s Broke right now. I’m here with Lisa and Amy, and they are performing tonight at the Chautauqua Community House. I believe that’s at 8pm.

Mama’s Broke: Yeah, doors at 7:30, music starts at 8. And we’re traveling with this great band from western North Carolina called the Resonant Rogues, and they’re gonna start off the show tonight.

Kooter Jones: Oh, cool.

Mama’s Broke: Don’t miss them.

Kooter Jones: Alright, and did you all have some more music to play?

Mama’s Broke: I think we have one more tune, yeah. A little fiddle tune that was written like we were talking about earlier, melody comes first and then a song and then a fiddle tune comes out of that. So this is the fiddle tune that came out of a song about the apocalypse, which keeps in our theme. 

Kooter Jones: Sounds awesome.

All right. I love the percussion with the feet. It’s bringing this place alive here. Is there anything that comes to your mind that you would like to share with us while you’re here on the air?

Mama’s Broke: Yeah, we’re doing a couple other shows in and around Denver. We are doing shows in Denver and Fort Collins over the next few days. So you should check out our website, mamasbroke.ca/shows if you want to get tickets to any of those.

Kooter Jones: Yeah. Okay. Definitely check that out. I think I saw that the Denver show is at Swallow Hill. I live down in Denver. So that’s down in my neighborhood. But definitely go and check out their Fort Collins show as well on their website.

Mama’s Broke: And see you tonight in Boulder.

Kooter Jones: Yeah, and I don’t know if you all have played at Chautauqua before.

Mama’s Broke: No, first time.

Kooter Jones: Yeah, it’s a really amazing venue. Super beautiful. It’s going to be the perfect ambiance, I think, for your sound.

Mama’s Broke: Awesome. That’s great.

Kooter Jones: Cool. You’ve been listening to Mama’s Broke performing here in the studio at KGNU, live and direct from Boulder. Thanks everyone for tuning in and thank you both Lisa and Amy for stopping in today and playing some music with us. It’s incredible.

Mama’s Broke: Thank you so much for having us.

Kooter Jones: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Come back anytime.

Mama’s Broke: Will do. Awesome.

Picture of Anya Sanchez

Anya Sanchez

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