ABIGAIL LAPELL REVEALS NEW SINGLE FT. PHARIS ROMERO

ABIGAIL LAPELL’S NEW ALBUM, SHADOW CHILD, ARRIVES MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND, MAY 8, 2026 VIA OUTSIDE MUSIC 

WATCH / SHARE “SO LONG” FT. PHARIS ROMERO

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NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES CONTINUE MAY 8

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Photo Credit : Jen Squires // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, Award-winning Toronto singer-songwriter Abigail Lapell reveals another track from her upcoming new album Shadow Child, an album about motherhood whose nine songs each represent a month of gestation. “So Long” is a ballad of maritime tragedy and reproductive choice. This acoustic waltz features stunning harmonies from guest singer Pharis Romero, adrift on waves of baritone guitar and accordion. 

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MORE ABOUT SHADOW CHILD
Every mother has a unique story. One thing is true for every mother, though: there’s no deadline quite like a pregnancy. Abigail Lapell was pregnant with her first child when she booked studio time on Vancouver Island to make an album about motherhood. The nine songs on Shadow Child, one for each month of gestation, had to be ready before then, and her return flight was booked on the last day she could safely fly in her third trimester. 

WATCH / SHARE “SHADOW CHILD” FT. FRAZEY FORD HERE
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Working with producer Colin Stewart (Dan Mangan, Black Mountain), Lapell finished her songs in the studio and on rural walks beside the Pacific Ocean. She enlisted some of her favourite singers, all British Columbians, all mothers: Frazey Ford, Jill Barber, Pharis Romero. “They’re all people with unique, distinctive voices,” she says, “which is what I’m drawn to.”  

For Shadow Child, musically, Lapell was looking for a stark, acoustic sound, as opposed to 2024’s JUNO Award-nominated Anniversary (recorded in Niagara with Great Lake Swimmers’ Tony Dekker) and 2022’s acclaimed Stolen Time (recorded in Montreal with Howard Bilerman, featuring E Street Band saxophonist Jake Clemons).

Lapell’s road to motherhood was fraught, involving years of IVF and a 2023 miscarriage — that she experienced on stage while on tour. (She finished her set.) Her son was born in November 2024. The song cycle of Shadow Child covers joy and loss, using metaphors from Maritime tragedy, “little cannibals,” reproductive health, acquiring language, and lives altered by the arrival of a newborn. The title track refers to ultrasound imaging of “a liminal person that doesn’t quite exist yet,” says Lapell. “Their status is ontologically blurry.”

WATCH / SHARE “HAZEL” FT. JILL BARBER HERE
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ABIGAIL LAPELL ON TOUR
May 8 - Richard's Landing, ON - Algoma Trad
May 14 - Saratoga Springs, NY - Caffe Lena
May 15 - Exeter, NH - Word Barn
May 16 - Cambridge, MA - Club Passim 
May 17 - New York, NY - Cafe Wha?
May 22 - Toronto, ON - Hugh's Room
May 23 - Chelsea, QC - Motel Chelsea
May 24 - Ottawa, ON - Ottawa Tennis Club
Aug 7-9 - Red Rock, ON - Live from the Rock Folk Festival

EU/UK
Nov 5 - Amen, NL - Cultureel Café de Amer
Nov 6 - Nisse, NL - Mariakerk
Nov 7 - Groningen, NL - Take Root Festival 
Nov 8 - Nijmegen, NL - Thiemeloods
Nov 9 - Cologne - United Lied 
Nov 10 - Utrecht, NL - Tivoli Vredenburg
Nov 12 - Paris, FR - Les Femmes s'en Melent
Nov 14 - London - West Hampstead Arts Centre
Nov 15 - Birmingham, UK - The Kitchen Garden Cafe
Nov 16 - Brighton - Folklore Club 
Nov 17 - Bristol, UK - The Hen and Chicken Studio
Nov 18 - Cambridge, UK - Portland Arms
Nov 19 - Newcastle, UK - Cluny 2 venue - Jumping Hot Club 
Nov 23 - Munich, DE - VIntage Pub
Nov 26 - Castelvetro di Modena, IT - Lambruscheria Ca Berti
Nov 27 - Piangipane, IT - Teatro Socjale
Nov 28 - Torino, IT - Folk Club
Nov 29 - Cortemaggiore, IT - Teatro Eleonora Duse

More Dates To Be Announced Soon

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SHADOW CHILD TRACKLIST
01 Whistle Song (One In A Million)
02 Hazel ft. Jill Barber
03 Shadow Child ft. Frazey Ford
04 Mocking Bird ft. Dana Sipos
05 Talking To Myself
06 Little Cannibal
07 So Long ft. Pharis Romero
08 Mother Tongue
09 Sing A Rainbow

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PHARIS & JASON ROMERO ANNOUNCE NEW LP, SHARE “LAST CALL”

Photo Credit : Rick Magnell  // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Four-time JUNO Award-winning singers, songwriters, banjo builders, and folk icons, Pharis and Jason Romero are releasing their seventh studio record. These Are The Days That Turn In To Years is a songwriter’s deep exhale, replete with stories, love, and nostalgia. It’s four years after the duo’s banjo-heavy last release, and recorded in the same eclectically restored riverside barn in Horsefly, British Columbia. With Pharis’ love of storytelling as a base for the duo’s artistic connection, the songs are lush and saturated with their lives: incidental touring, raising two kids, making banjos, and playing this music because they love it. The songs are created as much from ideas - from being on the tops of mountains and phone calls with aging loved ones to insomnia, meditation and family feuds - as they are from the joy of playing and recording with a stellar band: fiddle, bass, piano, and percussion. Two people in the thick of their lives, reveling in the music, words, and community.

Today, they are releasing the new single “Last Call”, a song Pharis began after a phone call with her dad, trying not to dwell on the thought that any call might be the last. It captures tender, funny and strange snapshots of stories from a long life, anchored by the sing-along chorus: ‘last call for old times, last call to you.’ With Jason on banjo, Pharis on guitar, Trent Freeman on fiddle, and Patrick Metzger on bass, the band’s joyful, slightly on-the-edge old-time approach playfully stretches the melody into an energetic ride through the tune.

BUY / STREAM “LAST CALL” HERE

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MORE ABOUT PHARIS & JASON ROMERO
Pharis and Jason Romero have a classic story. When some scratchy old records and a custom banjo led to their meeting in 2007, they quickly knew they were in for the long haul. The depth of their musical and personal relationship has grown incrementally over the years as they’ve explored old-time stringband music, how to sing like one person, and the banjo as an artform. 

On their newest record Pharis’ love for the compelling pulse of stories as songs is the base for the duo’s artistic connection. The songs are lush and saturated with their lives: phone calls with ageing loved ones, standing on top of mountains, meditation, family feuds, nostalgia for things that haven’t happened yet, sleepless nights. The lyrics capture tender, lovely and strange snapshots of life, often anchored by sing-along choruses.

These Are The Days That Turn In To Years was recorded in their eclectically restored riverside barn. John Raham (Frazey Ford, Dan Mangan, Tanya Tagaq, Ocie Elliott) engineered and mixed, marking “the fifth record that John has come to make with us in Horsefly,” says Pharis. “I can’t imagine making a record without him, Trent (Freeman) or Patrick (Metzger). The songs are created as much from ideas as they are from the joy of playing and recording with friends and stellar musicians.” 

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The group was also joined in the studio by Clinton Davis on piano and Pharis’ sister Marin Patenaude who makes a vocal appearance on the insomnia-inspired “Last Night”. The band’s joyful, slightly on-the-edge old-time approach often playfully stretches the melody into an energetic ride through the bouncier songs, while ambient strings and ragtime piano hold some of the more introspective pieces. The duo keeps to their roots with the spare banjo blues “Left My Home”.

Pharis and Jason tour incidentally while they’re raising two kids and making banjos in their home of Horsefly, BC. They play this music because they really, truly love it, and this record is a shining development of stories, love, and nostalgia from this unique duo.

PRE-SAVE THESE ARE THE DAYS THAT TURN IN TO YEARS HERE

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES
Apr 24 - Kelowna, BC - Kelowna Folk Roots
Apr 25 - Port Moody, BC - Inlet Music Series
Jun 22 - Port Townsend, WA - Voice Works 2026

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THESE ARE THE DAYS THAT TURN IN TO YEARS TRACKLIST
01 Big Time World
02 Last Call
03 Hey Babe
04 Always Losing Track
05 Last Night
06 Left My Home
07 Cannonball
08 I Got Away From Myself
09 Everybody Wants
10 Georgie
11 These Are The Days

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SUMMERSETS PUNCH THEIR “MILLION DOLLAR TICKET”

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summersets, the duo of Kalle Mattson and his childhood friend and long-time bandmate Andrew Sowka, return with their new single “Million Dollar Ticket”. The new track follows in the footsteps of their previous single “If You Were A Stranger”, which rose up the CBC Music Top 20 earlier this year. The idea for “Million Dollar Ticket” came to Mattson after “driving past a convenience store sign in Sault Ste. Marie last summer that said ‘million dollar ticket sold here, beer’ (it’s also on the single cover). The sign struck me as incredibly funny, sad, and hopeful all at once, and this idea of playing the lottery as your retirement plan or only way to move ahead came to me. I ended up writing the song about a couple who are getting passed by, born in the wrong generation, but still have each other.”

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MORE ABOUT SUMMERSETS
Previous single “Move Back Home” is about “the housing crisis in Canada, and specifically how our generation (millennials) have had to settle for a life that looks markedly different from the ones our parents led,” says Mattson. “The characters in the song are a composite of so many of our friends in their early 30s who are moving back to our hometown (Sault Ste. Marie, ON), after living in larger cities, because “moving back home” is their only real option of ever owning a home or starting a family. I’ve made peace that I will probably never own a home, what was an option for previous generations is not one for me, but I wanted to put that reality into a song where the characters are ‘settling’ and ‘settling down’, both for each other and in the larger context of their lives.”

WATCH / SHARE “MOVE BACK HOME” HERE
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On “If You Were A Stranger”, Mattson says “Since 2021 I’ve taught songwriting in the music department at Carleton University. Teaching at any level was certainly not something I ever thought I would do, but in teaching songwriting, it’s opened up a lot more areas in my own writing (what’s the saying ‘the best way to learn is to teach’? I think they also say ‘those that can’t do, teach’ but whatever). Every songwriter I know admires John Prine, but only until you try and write like him do you realize how hard it is to be genuine and funny all at once. ‘If You Were A Stranger’ was my attempt at writing a genuine love song for my partner (with a splash of humour), and I think it features some great understated playing from Jim Bryson, Christine Bougie, and Peter Von Althen, one of our favourites.”

WATCH / SHARE “IF YOU WERE A STRANGER” HERE
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summersets is the new duo from JUNO Award and Polaris Music Prize nominated singer-songwriter Kalle Mattson, and longtime collaborator Andrew Sowka. Influenced by the storytelling of John Prine and delivered with the delicacy of Simon & Garfunkel, their debut full-length, small town story, was produced by Jim Bryson (Kathleen Edwards, The Weakerthans) and nominated for both a 2024 Ontario Folk Music Award and a 2025 Canadian Folk Music Award. They are currently in the studio working on their followup LP once again with Jim Bryson, Peter Von Althen (Skydiggers) and Christine Bougie (Bahamas), due out later this year.

PERFORMANCE DATES
April 24 - Elgin, ON - Elgin United Church
May 16 - Almonte, ON - Almonte Old Town Hall (Folkus Concert Series)
July 12 - Ottawa, ON - Ottawa Bluesfest w/ The Lumineers and Leif Vollebekk

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