Abigail Lapell bringing her ‘more electrified version of folk’ to Cambridge

Canadian folk-rock singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Abigail Lapell is soon to release More Songs about Love, an extended companion to her acclaimed 2025 JUNO Award-nominated album Anniversary, and the release ties in with an upcoming Cambridge gig.

Set for release on 3 May, this deluxe edition of Anniversary – which came out in May last year – expands on the original with additional material.

“The deluxe extended EP is going to be out in May, and it’s eight more songs that are acoustic, kind of stripped-down,” explains Abigail, a three-time Canadian Folk Music Award-winner, speaking to the Cambridge Independent from her home in Toronto.

“There’s a few acoustic versions of the album songs and there’s a couple of traditional cover songs. There’s a version of one of my songs in French… So it’s kind of a companion EP to the album.”

Abigail will mark the release with her UK live debut, performing four dates – including one at the Cambridge Junction – that will culminate at London’s Jazz Café on 14 May.

Anniversary – a moving collection of original love songs – was recorded at the picturesque St Mark’s Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake, the second oldest Anglican church in Ontario.

She also shot a number of videos in there, including the upbeat Flowers in my Hair and the melodic, southern rock-esque Rattlesnake.

“This will not be impressive to someone who’s not from North America, but it’s a 200-year-old church – I think it’s the oldest continuously-running congregation in that area in Ontario,” notes Abigail, who has notched up a staggering 40 million-plus streams on Spotify alone.

“So yeah, we recorded the album there and shot a bunch of videos, and it was really beautiful – it sounded really cool in there, it’s like a very big echo and big, beautiful stained glass windows.”

Anniversary followed Abigail’s critically-acclaimed 2022 album Stolen Time, and her project Lullabies, which was released in November 2023.

When she comes to Cambridge, it will be with fellow Canadian songstress, Steph Cameron.

“I’m really excited; we don’t have a ton of shows in the UK and I’ve never been to Cambridge, so it will be a nice one,” says Abigail, who reveals that she recently had a baby.

Americana UK has described Abigail’s music as “Just beautiful” and there are indeed elements of country – or Americana – in her sound.

She describes her music, which definitely has more of an ‘edge’ to it than a lot of folk music, as “roots” and has also used the word ‘Canadiana’ – “but that’s not really a thing,” she says.

“I think I’m like folk-rock; like you’re saying country, but I think folk-rock – like folk with a band, a more electrified version of folk.”

Commenting on the state of the Canadian music scene in 2025, Abigail says: “I don’t know if I’m that plugged into the music scene, but there is a trend that I notice everywhere, in general, that maybe now it’s more splintered?

“There’s kind of more smaller scenes that are more niche… I don’t know if this is true or not, but I sometimes think it’s getting back to a smaller scene, people looking for ways to not be on the road as much.

“Maybe it’s just because I’m older too, so people are starting to have families and looking for different models of touring – or like myself, touring with your children.

“It’s tough, I mean it’s such a big country [Canada], so it’s so expensive to tour, there’s not a large population obviously.

“It’s so spread out, so even for bigger bands I think it’s really hard to make it work. It’s an interesting time for sure because that old music industry model is changing so much.”

Abigail Lapell will be appearing at the Cambridge Junction (J2) on Monday, 12 May, with support from Steph Cameron.

Tickets, priced £20, are available from junction.co.uk. For more information on Abigail, go to abigaillapell.com.