SPILL NEWS: ABIGAIL LAPELL REVEALS NEW SINGLE FT. PHARIS ROMERO | ‘SHADOW CHILD’ ARRIVES MAY 8 VIA OUTSIDE MUSIC

ABIGAIL LAPELL REVEALS NEW SINGLE FT. PHARIS ROMERO | SHADOW CHILD ARRIVES MAY 8 VIA OUTSIDE MUSIC

NORTH AMERICAN & UK TOUR DATES

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.

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.

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.”

Abigail Lapell
Shadow Child
(Outside Music)
Release Date: May 8, 2026

PRE-SAVE SHADOW CHILD HERE

Tour Dates

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
August 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

Artist Links

Photo Credit: Jen Squires