Mamas Broke & Rufous Nightjar
Fri 27 Jun 2025 (note: this event has already taken place)
7:30pm
€15.00
A double headliner show with Mamas Broke + Rufous Nightjar.
Mama’s Broke is a powerful folk duo that deliver a compelling performance with heart and raw energy. Although highly influenced by their Canadian roots, Lisa and Amy are based out of nowhere and everywhere.
Their two strong voices blend to create haunting harmonies, while they artfully juggle fiddle, banjo, guitar and mandolin, and incorporate traditional dance and foot percussion into their performance. Their original – and often dark – compositions push the boundaries of tradition and the constraints of genre. Drawing from old-time, Quebecois, blues, punk, Celtic, Balkan and doom metal, they create a soundscape that is both familiar and new.
Since forming the band in 2014, Mama’s Broke has been gaining momentum fast ; having already completed two European, and several Canadian and U.S. tours. They have performed in a wide range of venues, from circus shows in New Orleans, to pirate ships in Amsterdam, to concert halls in Ireland, to theatres in Brooklyn.
In this way, they stay true to the transient nature of folklore, as they travel the world sharing and collecting song.
2017 brought the release of their debut album, Count the Wicked, which earned them a Canadian Folk Music Award for Ensemble of the Year as well as a nomination for an ECMA Rising Star Award.
The driving force behind this band is – and has always been – the commitment to challenge borders between people, places and traditions; while encouraging freedom of expression and community through music.
Rufous Nightjar
The friendship and musical collaboration of these three musicians came alive in a golden wave of underground traditional and folk music in Dublin. The three were performers and musicians in their own right and took part in one anothers’ creative projects over the years. In the summer of 2018, their shared interest in traditional singing led the three to travel across Eastern Europe learning folk songs.
During this trip they developed an intricate and harmonious dynamic which has led them to working together on a collaborative project.
Having spent the lockdown composing a number of a cappella songs around the themes of mythology, folklore, landscape, loss and the otherworld, Branwen Kavanagh invited Anna-Mieke Bishop and Zoé Basha to collaborate on arranging the songs for an upcoming album for three voices.
After two months of development residencies in county Clare, Killyon Manor (Meath) and Killruddery House (Wicklow), followed by a sold-out Irish tour in 2021, they recorded an album together, to be released later in 2022.
