These moms started writing raunchy songs for therapy. It grew into Mommy Tonk.

When Mommy Tonk was born, it wasn’t a rough delivery. In fact, things could not have gone any more according to plan.

Both Stacie Burrows and Shannon Noel had admittedly eerily similar backgrounds and back stories. Both grew up in the church choir in their respective parts of the South (Burrows in Texas, Noel in nearby Louisville). Both got into musical theatre and improv/sketch comedy. Both women moved to Los Angeles and were cast in “Expressing Motherhood,” a stage show that showcased both dramatic and comedic stories covering the entire spectrum of all things Mom.

Burrows got to see Noel first, delivering her piece wearing nothing but a breast pump and pajama pants. Noel soon followed (she had one boy at home and was carrying her second son at the time), allowing Burrows to see “the most hilarious stand-up I’d ever seen” based around a long-distance baby monitor.

“After a few bottles of wine and breast pumping, we just became best friends,” Burrows recalls, sparking laughter from herself and Noel.

How Burrows and Noel became “comedy soul sisters” is sweet. The sounds that come out of the comedic duo they formed, Mommy Tonk, are also sweet, at least when you talk about the harmonies and the Americana, roots music aesthetic courtesy of acoustic guitar, piano, upright bass, drums and fiddle.

Then ... there are the lyrics.

The music of Mommy Tonk and The Assless Chaps (yep, that’s their backing band’s name) is punctuated with lyrics you definitely wouldn’t find in a kid’s bedtime story. Oftentimes fueled by liquid inspiration (“We both like Tito’s vodka,” Burrows said), a Mommy Tonk song and performance is choked full of vulgarity, cursing and thoughts that express the emotion mothers and wives may oftentimes feel but rarely verbalize.

“We started writing (these songs) as a completely therapeutic survival skill because being a mother is really intense and being married is really intense,” Burrows said. “We were finding the humor in these really dark and intense moments.”

“I think that’s why it works, we’re not up there spewing hatred or anger or anything,” Noel adds. “It’s kind of building that community of truth.”

Mommy Tonk’s following started in Los Angeles and eventually grew to encompass the California coast. Their first shows outside of California involved visits to do shows in their home states of Texas and Kentucky, respectively, before their popularity grew to the point where they currently tour nationwide. The duo is returning to Kentucky to make its first Lexington appearance Wednesday at Comedy Off Broadway.

This eventually led to Mommy Tonk and The Assless Chaps releasing its 2017 full-length album, “Nailed It” which features 17 tracks covering topics such as longing for the excesses of single life (“We Used To Be You”), helping kids go to sleep through unconventional means (“Benadryl”), husbands that do too little (“Here’s Me Communicating My Needs”), husbands that work too much (“I’m Just Sayin’”) and other topics ranging from PTA fundraisers and Facebook to Target and Farm Boxes.

“It really captures that sort of pre-school and elementary school mom phase because that’s where we were when we wrote it,” Burrows said.

“With our kids getting older and our marriages getting more ‘seasoned,’ there’s just a never-ending amount of material,” Noel said.

With their musical sensibilities, Mommy Tonk occupy a unique niche in the a space on social media that is becoming more and more saturated with mom’s using the internet to air their grievances of motherhood and marriage. Burrows and Noel are very different women at home with their actual families than they are on stage with the extended family that relate all too well to their raunchy songs, but they found something when they found each other that’s become essential to them both.

“It’s been so fulfilling on so many levels, not just creatively, but heart and soul, too,” Noel said. “It’s like a marriage,” Burrows added. “We’re committed to it.”

IF YOU GO

Mommy Tonk

When: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24

Where: Comedy Off Broadway161 Lexington Green Circle

Tickets: $20

Call: 859-271-5653

Online: comedyoffbroadway.com, mommytonk.com

This story was originally published October 18, 2018 at 6:23 PM with the headline "These moms started writing raunchy songs for therapy. It grew into Mommy Tonk.."