Mama’s Broke – Reunion
This is a quietly rural, prairie-expansive Americana spring rain collection of tunes sung with a landscape of harmony. The picking has clarity & is played with assurance & confidence. While not quite The McGarrigle Sisters (yet), the duo has warmth & skill that’s evident in each piece they perform. It would be easy to compare them to The Indigo Girls, but that’s not the well where these artists draw their melodic inspiration. They’re too close to vintage Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ for that. Some tunes have an Appalachian flavor, a 1920’s folk allure, a barefoot fiddler with dirty feet quality, a sincere smile with closed eyes as the music’s strummed, plucked, or sawed. Intimacy on these tunes is part of the recipe. No mainstream dream or commercial confection. This is what America sounds like when she’s alone with her wood & steel strings.
There are 12 expressive pieces to Reunion (Drops Aug 28/Free Dirt Records/40:13) produced by Mama’s Broke with Sean Sullivan & recorded in TN. “All Alone” is haunting melodically & vocally; the instruments accompany the human voices as if they too were singing. For the most part, the performances are stripped of embellishments. The material is tightened around the melodies with spare playing. The skeleton of the composition is brought to life for the moments where the tonality embraces the fingers pressing down on the strings.
Even more intimate & passive is “The Nameless” & “The Forsaken Lover” — atmospheric & the perfectly blended voices of “The Nameless” by Amy Lou Keeler (vocals/guitar/banjo/shruti box) & Lisa Maria (vocals/fiddle/mandolin/guitar/banjo) slowly develop into a shiny upbeat down-home fiddle & banjo parfait. Traces of The Carter Family pastels & sepias hover over it all jubilantly. Mindful of Burning Bridget Cleary & the dual fiddles of those sisters.
Even the solo vocal on “Wildflowers” is pensive & expressive. It brings me back to the early ‘60s Judy Collins decorated albums with wildflowers, honey, sunflowers, French chansons, wood-burning fires, incense & herbs. This LP, in a word, is “warmth.” Each tune provides dulcet voices & harmonies in a torrential sound of sparkling notes. The consistency of the banjo, fiddle & acoustics that accompany the voices brings about a tonal mahogany — delicate & easy.
Therapeutic is “Dig Deep & Win Wisely,” which unfortunately doesn’t last long at under 2-minutes. “Bridges” sweeps in with a vocal similar to English folk singer June Tabor. There are complexities mixed with being loose on the earthy, deep flowing signatures, mature flint & steel flickers from the words & music. Lovely in its simplicity. The late John Hartford would’ve loved playing “Fifolet Waltz” with Mama’s Broke. An excellent, easily accessible, & likeable ballad.
Highlights – “All Alone,” “The Nameless” & “The Forsaken Lover,” “Wildflowers,” “Dig Deep & Win Wisely,” “Bridges” & “Fifolet Waltz.”
Musicians –Paul Kowert & Bill Allison (double bass) & Philippe Bronchtein (pedal steel).
Sepia image courtesy of their Bandcamp site. An 8pp lyric insert is included. CD @ Bandcamp & Amazon + https://mamasbroke.ca/ & https://freedirt.net/products/mamas-broke-reunion