Over the past decade and three spellbinding albums, Abigail Lapell has earned two Canadian Folk Music Awards (English Songwriter of the Year in 2020 and Contemporary Album of the Year in 2017), hit number one on Canadian folk radio, and accrued a staggering 13 million+ Spotify streams while touring widely across Canada, the U.S., and Europe. Her new album Stolen Time is due out April 22, 2022. (Abigail Lapell, 2022)

There is a deep level of empathy that only comes about when one has experienced or been impacted by similar situations. In the case of Canadian singer/songwriter Abigail Lapell, watching a ban on Muslim immigrants happen right before her eyes struck a generational chord with the woman whose family escaped the Holocaust by immigrating from Eastern Europe to North America. Lapell took to her notebook and the resulting song, “Land Of Plenty,” presents a simple-but-striking look at the hopes and hardships of immigrating to a new world as the opening track from her upcoming album, Stolen Time. Its themes are both timeless and timely in its recurring, prayerful refrains, evoking the spirits of Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger. Flood premiered “Land Of Plenty,” which described the song as a, “stripped-down beauty.” Fans can stream “Land Of Plenty” now at this link, check out previously-released singles “Pines” and “Ships,” and pre-order or pre-save Stolen Time ahead of its April 22nd release right here.

The upcoming Stolen Time strikes a balance between Lapell’s acoustic debut Great Survivor and her two rockier Chris Stringer-produced records Hide Nor Hair and Getaway, while bringing a live-off-the-floor 70s folk-rock vibe and more structural experimentation to the table on songs that feel expansive in their scope—unhurried, psychedelic, and other-worldly. Lapell’s band underscores and meets the power of her vocals on songs like “Ships,” a wild sax solo seemingly enticing her higher and louder to meet the crashing waves. Many of Stolen Time’s standout tracks are solo acoustic guitar songs, backed by little more than Lapell’s harmonica, pump organ, or accordion. “Old Flames,” with Lapell’s melodic fingerstyle guitar mimicking flickering embers, is a bit of an answer song to Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire,” the swirling and woozy “Scarlet Fever” was inspired by an elderly relative’s tales of being quarantined as a child, and the aforementioned “Land Of Plenty” haunts with its folk-refrain statement on immigration, past and present.

Stolen Time also marks the collaborative meeting of two important music communities for Lapell, who spent formative years in Montreal’s Mile End before returning to her hometown: From Toronto, Dan Fortin (bass), Dani Nash (drums, vocals), Christine Bougie (lap steel, guitar) and Rachael Cardiello (viola); and from Montreal Katie Moore (vocals), Chris Velan (vocals), Pietro Amato (French horn) and Ellwood Epps (trumpet); Nashville pedal steel player Fats Kaplin and Vancouver cellist Peggy Lee also play on the album.

Stolen Time track list:
Land of Plenty
Ships
Pines
Scarlet Fever
All Dressed Up
I See Music
Waterfall
Stolen Time
Sewage
Old Flames
I Can’t Believe